





*>(• • 




* *i 




.>• 




^r - ^•^*. ■ '■■ . ,; -Vv . , 


llf','I 


m L : \,* c - ^ 




v.i r-J 


Lkf' r-* - -. ’♦ 

*■ iT*^ 






jr.,* . - 


iM • 


& 


A ' . 

? • ^ ^ • •* 1.^ ' 

I ^ ?*k •" . ;• 

. - V **•: * 


ff% 






A' . 


,- '‘•.,.i ■■‘ 5 * 






i« 






4 « • 




..»*j 


«' * iLt 

imM;>:'4:-»t- '• ■ 




IF ^ •- V 


ihi 


v, 4 t' 

- 7-c, \-. . 


Hlf ^ 


■S 9 


_ V . • : " :^;v 


■'i 


*• I 


« ; A * A« 


i I 




^.x 






M V Jti>^ 




.. ‘ tr ■’ -I. - , ’I - I 

. .;5i .•tJI*®, 


_.T- ' 


© , 


• 


• . * •SV*-'^ 








■“..i 


"•S'. 




r 3 , 




^ • I . 

y- ' * ' j- 


^1 • ^ 

”*' c*' ' §?■*•» * 




%. 


■' -ii/ 


» • 


V. 




■'^SV 


1 n 'fc- 

■ T — ^ 

' ^-".r- #; 


j" r...^'-' 


k»' 










:t 




• 




HiiBIlM 




All 




5 Pir^'. ■ ■', :• "■ 


t- ' I 


15 . 


■V .. 

- * -’^.n^ 

•* T Ik^oi 


I? 


jjpV 










■■ H 






*1 




r-'^-'v. 




’^t ' ^N^I" -”* ■■^-''Sr* 








i -it* 








.t ^*^.■Z ^ *. y: 










t 


4 ^ 


0 


I 


Y 


«« 






i 


I 




r 



# 

* 




A 

V .. 








t 




4 




a 


. • • t . 



-N 4 



4^ 





















1 p » 




Jessie’s Three Resolutions 


Page 27 


i'luiiillnl 





i. 


t 

• » 


I- 


t 


« 


p 




•s • 

• 0 



i 


$ * 




» 


V 



♦ 


I 



I 




« 







I 


I 


\ 

•'*v. 

' • , -•r 


♦ 




4 



I 


I 

I 



> 

k 




» 

■■ .'xy 


» 


I 


i 


1 

t 

i 




» 



. < 


I 



% 



> 


f 


< 




:-r 



I 


t 



» 







I* 





:iv< 






. f 


f 

I 


I 


4 . 


4 

» 


f 



4 


> # 




0 


JESSIE’S THREE RESOLUTIONS 





MARY Ei BAMFORD 


Interest in all nations, and in seeking that repentance and remission of sins 
should be preached to them, expands our hearts, opens our minds, and opens our 
pockets too. for those who are nearer our doors. — Dr. J. Brown. 



AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

1420 Chestnut Street 




s 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, by the 
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Tempted and Tried, 5 

CHAPTER 11. 

Resolving, . . . 19 

CHAPTER HI. 

Looking for Heathen, 31 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Trials of Mission Work, 45 

CHAPTER V. 

Ideas for Work, 57 

CHAPTER VI. 

Jessie’s Effort, 80 


3 


4 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER YII. 

PAGE 

Learning Patience, 103 

CHAPTER YIII. 

The Field Widens, 112 

CHAPTER IX. 

Jessie Perseveres, 131 

CHAPTER X. 

Interesting Some One Else, 158 

CHAPTER XL 

One Result, 182 


JESSIE’S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


CHAPTER I. 

TEMPTED AND TRIED. 

He must be very wise that can forbear being troubled at 
things very troublesome. — Tillotson, 

don’t !” exclaimed Jessie, irritably. 

^ She spoke to the ashes that she was just 
carrying outside. She heard a stifled remark behind 
her as she slammed the kitchen door, but did not stop to 
ask what had been said. She knew that the wind was 
blowing back some of the ashes upon her, and so she 
hastily ran down the steps and through the yard to the 
ash heap. As she emptied the pan, the wind again 
seized on the ashes, and blew them partly over her. 

Oh ! Oh ! ” ejaculated Jessie, I suppose that 
there’s a sprinkling of ashes on my hair and all over 
my back ! ” 

She brushed her shoulders as well as she could, and 
hurried in. As Jessie entered the kitchen, her aunt 
pointed to the floor, and the girl looking down, saw 
what had caused the muffled remark behind her at the 


6 


6 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


time of her exit. Half the width of the narrow little 
kitchen was littered with the white ashes. 

^^Oh!” Jessie groaned, despairingly. Did the 
ashes blow back here too ? ” 

She swept and mopped the oilcloth-covered floor, but 
the work did not tend to calm her ruffled spirits. 
Jessie had felt cross all the morning. She had tried 
not to speak sharply, but she had not kept from think- 
ing impatiently, and the consequence was that, as for 
several hours now she had been indulging in an irri- 
tated mental mood, the sharp words were very near the 
surface. She had a hard cold in her head, and the 
dusty wind seemed to blow on her nerves. Such a 
wind always had a tendency to blow her Christian 
patience away, almost as easily as if it were light as 
the leaves and twigs that were swept rapidly past the 
window. 

Jessie went to the stove to fix the fire, and discov- 
ered on the back of it some soot that had been blown 
down from a small hole in the stove pipe. She 
brushed up the soot in an impatient silence. 

Then she went into the front room to dust the fur- 
niture. While she was wiping a table, a gust of wind 
blew some brick dust down the old chimney into the 
grate. 

It’s almost no use dusting such weather,” com- 
plained Jessie to herself. How horrid everything is ! ” 
A slight clatter came from the kitchen, and Jessie 


TEMPTED AND TRIED. 


7 


knowing that she was needed there, went to wipe the 
dishes. As she worked, she found a fresh source of 
impatience in the fact that the dishes, after being 
washed, had not been turned the right way to drain. 
The plates held water, and the tins w^ere hard to get 
perfectly dry. It was very trying. And then she 
had two packages of books to strap in paper, and she 
could not find twine enough to tie around them the 
opposite way from that in which the straps went. She 
tried cotton yarn, but it broke ; and white linen thread 
did the same. And her miserable cold troubled her, 
and the paper in which she was wrapping the books 
tore a little, and would not fold as it should at the 
ends, and Jessie grew warm and uncomfortable, and 
more out of temper every second. The holes in the 
straps were not in the right places, and Jessie punched 
some new ones with the scissors, and tugged at the 
straps, until at last the two packages of books stood 
together on the ledge of the book-case. 

That’s done,” sighed Jessie. 

Her wandering glance fell upon a place on the car- 
pet beside a clothes’ closet. She frowned. There were 
some scraps and threads on the floor. Jessie sprang 
nervously to brush the place. She hated to see dirt on 
the carpet. She was sure her aunt had left those few 
threads there. Jessie was obliged to make a little 
dust with the broom and the carpet-sweeper, and that 
was trying, for she had already wiped the furoiture in 


8 


Jessie’s three resolution's. 


that room, and she did not want the dust to settle on 
the things so soon again. 

There ! ” she exclaimed, as she pushed the carpet- 
sweeper out into the next room, and stooped to pick 
up another thread she had noticed on the carpet. How 
many horrid things do happen to-day ! And I must 
give three music lessons this afternoon ! ’’ 

She sighed again, not remembering how much more 
she would have had to sigh over if she had not had 
those music-scholars to teach, since money was not 
plentiful, and Jessie’s scholars helped a great deal to- 
ward the household finances. 

Jessie glanced at the clock, and noticing the hour, 
felt a twinge of conscience, as she remembered the 
length of time she had been indulging in this mood of 
ill-temper. But it was not so easy to stop and become 
perfectly amiable all in a moment. Moreover a soimd 
in front of the house arrested her attention. 

Aunt Abby’s watering the yard,” thought Jessie. 
She needn’t do that. I was going to do it.” 

A stream of water rushed against a front window. 

Oh, there now,” grumbled Jessie ; what does she 
do that for ? I always wash and wipe that window on 
the outside. When it’s washed with the hose, there 
are streaks left on the glass. Now that window will 
be streaked, and I will have to go and wash it again. 
I do wish Aunt Abby would let it alone ! ” 

Jessie was more tried than ever when she went into 


TEMPTED AND TRIED. 


9 


the front hall and saw that Aunt Abby had directed 
the hose against the front door, and that some water 
had come under the door and wet the front hall car- 
pet for about a foot. The colors of the carpet would 
run when wet. 

‘‘ Oh ! groaned Jessie. ‘‘ Now there will be a 
great spot there.^^ 

But she did not say anything to her aunt, although 
it cost her a struggle not to do so. Poor Aunt Abby ! 
Her health was not good. She could work only at 
times, and she always tried to do what she could. 
Jessie grimly shut her lips, and said nothing about 
the water. She went into the next room to wash her 
hands. The towel was missing, as she discovered after 
getting her hands dripping wet, and she had to go 
away out to the kitchen for a clean one from a drawer. 
She came glumly back again, and hung the towel in 
its place beside the washstand. 

Excuse me,^^ apologized Aunt Abby, who had 
just come in. I thought when I took that towel 
away Pd get a new one immediately, but I forgot it.^^ 
It seems to me I almost always have to go for a 
towel when you change it,^^ grumbled Jessie, mentally. 

Outwardly she was silent, just as she was awhile 
afterward when the lunch table was being cleared off. 
Jessie opened the slide between the kitchen and the 
dining-room. Either her mother or Aunt Abby had 
put a quart measure of milk among the other dishes 


10 Jessie’s theee resolutions. 

standing there, and on that side of the slide there was 
a hook, the relic of a time when the slide had been 
kept fastened. As Jessie opened the slide, this hook 
almost caught the handle of the quart measure, which 
had been placed too near the board. Of course, Jessie 
could not see before opening the slide, and it was a 
very little space that prevented the hook from knock- 
ing the milk over and splashing it on the other eat- 
ables waiting in the opening. Jessie had passed 
through some such catastrophe once before, and the 
thought of what might have been this time was too 
much for her equanimity, already sorely tried. 

“ I should think you might be more careful,” she 
inwardly stormed ; the “ you ” meaning either of the 
persons in the next room. 

Jessie had that morning asked the Jjord to keep her 
lips, her thoughts, and her actions j but to-day was one 
of her “ cross days,” and it did not seem as if she 
could be patient. It requires watching, as well as 
prayer, to enable us to resist temptation. Jessie des- 
perately wished that she was not so cross. She was 
God’s child on this “ cross day ” of hers, just as she 
had been last Sunday when she taught her class of 
boys so earnestly ; or Wednesday, when she played the 
organ for the hymns at prayer meeting. 

“ You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Jessie told 
herself, as she sat sewing that afternoon, waiting for a 
music scholar j to think that after you have been a 


TEMPTED AND TKIED. 


11 


Christian so many years^ you are so impatient. Why 
don’t you control yourself? You are like that soldier 
in Cromwell’s army, John Shelburne, of whom Crom- 
well said that he was so irritable that when no one 
else was about, John would quarrel with Shelburne, 
and Shelburne with John.” 

Jessie smiled, but there were tears in her eyes. 
She had been reviewing her forenoon as she sewed, and 
she found much to cause her regret. She ought to 
have been more patient. She knew it. She remem- 
bered last Sunday night’s, young people’s prayer meet- 
ing. The subject had been God’s power to keep,” 
and Jessie recollected especially the words of one 
woman, who had said : 

I hope I may be pardoned for being personal,” 
and Jessie knew her as a very pleasant member of the 
church, but the subject to-night brought to my mind 
an experience of my own ; and I thought perhaps it 
might help another person. When I became a Chris- 
tian, I was greatly troubled about my temper. I 
would become angry so often. I tried to be pleasant, 
but it seemed to me sometimes almost as if I could 
not be a Christian, I had such a temper. And I re- 
member that once, when I was feeling so, that passage 
from the Bible came to me: ^ Satan has desired to 
have thee, but I have prayed for thee.’ And it seemed 
to me that if Jesus was praying for me, he had sym- 
pathy for me, and he knew just how hard it was for 


12 


JESSIE^S THEEE RESOLUTIONS. 


me, and would help me to conquer my temper. There 
was such comfort in that thought, ^ I have prayed for 
thee.’ ” 

The woman’s voice trembled a little as she ceased 
speaking. Jessie had never imagined that she had 
much of a temper because she was so pleasant, and 
kind-hearted, and lovable always. 

Just now the woman’s words came back to Jessie. 
Surely Satan had desired to have her this day. Had 
the Lord prayed for her ? The slow tears filled her 
eyes and dropped upon her work. 

I will try,” she murmured. Dear Lord, help 
me.” 

She had need of his help and patience through that 
afternoon. The three music scholars whose lessons 
came on that day appeared, one after another. Some 
of the lessons were but half learned, and Jessie tried 
to patiently correct blunders, and reiterate again and 
again instructions given before. She was a very tired 
teacher when five o’clock came and the last scholar 
went away. Jessie sat down on the lounge and began 
to look at some papers which the postman had brought 
that afternoon. She picked up a new little missionary 
pamphlet. 

I wonder what this is ? ” she thought. I never 
saw it before. Somebody must have sent it to us ; 
somebody who knew how interested we all are in mis- 
sions, I suppose.” 


TEMPTED AND TEIED. 


13 


The girl looked very sober. The subject of foreign 
missions was a very tender one with her. She had been 
brought up to be interested in foreign missions. When 
she was only a little child she made up her mind that she 
was going to become a missionary when she was grown. 
And now that she was older, she found herself bound 
to music teaching, her father being dead, her mother ah 
most an invalid, and her aunt so old and feeble as to 
be nearly helpless at times. Jessie was a good musi- 
cian and had quite a number of scholars. But was this 
the life she had planned for herself? The thought of 
those who sat in darkness, those who were dying with- 
out Christ, almost overwhelmed her sometimes. What 
could she do? She must stay, and earn money, and 
care for the needs of those two dear ones who de- 
pended so much on her and whose health was so 
poor. 

Jessie had opened the little missionary pamphlet 
while she thought. She looked at the page before her. 
On it were a few short items about the great spiritual 
destitution of the world : 

Ecuador, with between one and two millions of 
people, has no missionary and never had one.^^ 

Dr. Thomas B. Wood is the only Protestant pastor 
among the three millions of Peru.^^ 

There are not more than twenty or thirty light- 
bearers among the two and a half millions of Chile. 
Eighteen workers for the four million people of 


14 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


the Argentine Republic and Patagonia ! Why, O 
Church, dost thou not hasten to save ? ” 

A few passing visits have been made by colporters 
of the American Bible Society among the people of Bo- 
livia, but there is as yet no resident Protestant mission- 
ary for its two million, three hundred thousand souls.” 

Jessie gazed at that page until her eyes were full of 
tears. Why had she ever had such light as had been 
hers all her life ? Why was she not in darkness as 
those in heathen lands were ? That which burdened 
her heart most heavily was the item concerning Ec- 
uador. 

Ecuador, with between one and two millions of 
people, has no missionary and never had one.” 

Never had one, and all these years those thousands, 
those millions of people had been going down to death ! 
What were Christian people thinking about ? Oh, how 
much needed to be done ! 

Jessie reached to the book-case and drew out an en- 
cyclopaedia. Turning to Ecuador,” she read : 

The entire population, except the uncivilized In- 
dians, belong to the Roman Catholic Church, and the 
public exercise of any other form of religion is for- 
bidden. 

The Indian population grows up almost entirely 
without education. In accordance with the concordat 
of 1863, the entire public instruction is in agreement 
with the Catholic Church.” • 


TEMPTED AND TRIED. 


15 


Yes, and the Catholic Church not modified in certain 
respects as it might be in America, by contact daily with 
protestantism, but the Catholic Church in all the black- 
ness of its ignorance, and wickedness, and superstition, 
in a land where protestantism is forbidden. And such 
a land has no missionary and never had one.’^ 

Jessie shut the book softly. Those who lived and 
died without the light ! The thought of whither they 
were so steadily going seemed unbearable. And Ecuador 
was but one country. There were so many other places 
so destitute. Oh, if she could go ! Why could she 
not ? Why, when he knew her life-plan had the Lord 
so appointed her lot that instead of being a missionary 
she must spend her days teaching music and doing 
housework, trying all she could to make the home 
finances meet demands and to help her sick mother and 
her aunt ? Not that Jessie wearied of caring for these 
dear ones and helping them. Not that at all. She had 
thanked God many and many a time that he had given 
her a means of earning her living at home, that he al- 
lowed her to earn enough to pay bills and keep anxiety 
from those two persons dearest to her, and that he had 
so arranged her life that while still earning she might 
be at home the greater part of the time and so at- 
tend to the housework that would be too hard for her 
mother and her aunt, and utterly impossible for them 
to do at those times when the health of one or the other, 
or both, was the poorest. Yes, many a time Jessie felt 


16 JESSIE^S THKEE RESOLUTIONS. 

that she had much to thank God for. It was he who 
had enabled her father to give her unusually good musical 
advantages in the years past^ thus fitting her for earn- 
ing the living. Now that her father’s work on earth 
was over, she could bravely go on teaching the most 
undesirable and stupid of music scholars, if the effort 
would only keep comfort in the home. But, once in a 
while, some such bits of information as those she had 
just read about mission fields would strike her with a 
pang. It seemed so dreadful to think about thousands 
on thousands of people sitting in darkness, knowing 
nothing of the light, nothing of Christ, passing on to 
Christless graves, with the future dark, oh, so dark ! 

You are not to judge that because this inconsistent 
young Christian had been impatient and fretful this 
morning, therefore she was not in earnest about this 
matter of missions. The Lord has many very faulty 
followers, and Jessie was a true follower in spite of her 
imperfections. 

Jessie dropped her head, and burst into tears. 

Oh, dear Lord,” she prayed, send forth laborers 
into thy harvest ! Lay it upon the hearts of thy 
people ! ” 

Did he not know the limitations of her life ? 

Lord, guide me,” she whispered. 

And from that day the name Ecuador ” was to be 
written on Jessie’s prayer list, as an object to be espe- 
cially mentioned in her petitions. 


TEMPTED AND TKIED. 


17 


It was time to get supper. Jessie wiped her eyes, 
and went to the shed to get a pan of potatoes to wash. 

It did not look like a very exalted occupation, but 
we cannot always tell by the appearance of work 
whether it is exalted or not. 

Jessie put the potatoes into the oven to bake, and 
went to the garden to see if she could not find enough 
green peas to add a little relish to the meal. She had 
dug the ground for the patch of peas herself, and 
bought the seed and planted it, and now she was glad 
that for a number of times there had been enough peas 
to cook. Jessie picked peas and thought about Ecuador, 
the bright California sunshine enveloping her as she 
worked and thought. 

^^I can do so little to help foreign missions,^^ she 
thought, sadly. 

Then like a flash there came to her memory those 
words of that immortal Baptist missionary, William 
Carey : All I can do is plod.^^ 

A gleam of hope accompanied the memory of those 
words. Could she not also plod ? Could she not 
ask God to guide her plodding ? 

‘^1 will plod,^^ resolved Jessie, energetically. ^^I 
will plod as I never have plodded before ! ’’ 

As she went about her work her thoughts as well as 
her hands were busy. Many were the bits of mission- 
ary information she was able to recall that but added 
inspiration to her fixed determination. 

B 


/ 


18 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

One day as she was dusting the parlor, her mind 
revolving meanwhile some new items of interest relating 
to her beloved work, the thought came to her : 

If every Christian would do all he or she could, 
even by ^ plodding,’ how much more would be accom- 
plished than now is in mission work ! ” 


CHAPTER II. 


RESOLVING. 

I never knew a case of a person or a parish warmly interested 
in missionary work where larger blessings of spiritual prosperity 
were not returned, good measure, pressed down and running 
over.— E. Fox. 

^ ^ acquiesced a woman’s voice back of Jessie’s 

chair, I believe in both kinds of missions.” 

Quite a number of women were sitting in the large, 
high, back part of the church which they had come to 
visit, and in which they had been holding a women’s 
quarterly mission meeting of the delegates from the 
Baptist churches of that section. It was the noon 
hour now, and the women had adjourned to the back 
part of the building, where they were furnished with 
sandwiches, cake, coffee, tea, and bananas by the kind, 
energetic workers of the little entertaining church. 
Jessie was eating her lunch when she overheard the 
Avoman behind talking to Aunt Abby. 

^^Noav, you know,” continued the AYoman’s voice, 
I have a very good neighbor, Mrs. Jerome. She is 
not a church-member, but she is a real nice woman. I 
spoke to her once, telling her how interested I was in 
foreign missions, and she said : ^ Well, I used to believe 

19 


20 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 

in foreign missions too, when I lived back East. I 
had a neighbor there who was always talking about 
foreign missions. She was so interested in them ! And 
of course, enthusiasm is contagious, and I became 
interested too. But after a while both her family and 
mine moved out here to California, and that woman 
who was so interested in foreign missions got a 
Chinese for a servant. Well, the way she treated that 
heathen servant was dreadful ! I would not have been 
so mean to anybody as she was to him. Why, she 
didn’t act as if he had a soul at all ! And I just made 
up my mind that if that was the way that woman 
treated the first heathen she had ever had near enough 
to do anything for, why then that woman’s talk about 
love for foreign missions was all humbug ! And so I 
have never believed in foreign missions since.’ So you 
see,” added the speaker, that I am not very likely to get 
Mrs. Jerome to come to any quarterly mission gathering.” 

^^Well,” Jessie heard Aunt Abby answer, ^^Mrs. 
Jerome thinks' she has a little reason on her side, I 
suppose. It is a pity she has had such an experience. 
Some of the romance of missions does wear off, I sus- 
pect, on becoming acquainted with real heathen. I 
think some persons’ fancy for foreign missions is merely 
a romantic notion which is not founded on the true 
love for souls that will enable a missionary to go to the 
filthy, degraded heathen and live among them, trying to 
win them to Christ.” 


RESOLVING. 


21 


agreed the other woman^ ^Hhere are two 
kinds of liking for missions ; one liking that is real, 
and another kind that is not. And it seems to me 
here in California the kind that is not gets hold of 
some folks, judging in regard to the Chinese.^^ 

I hope you and I have the real kind/^ Aunt Abby 
answered, quietly. And then the groups began to 
break up and go back to the main room. 

After the lunch hour, the afternoon session began 
with a short prayer meeting, and the leader of the 
meeting urged her hearers toward more consecration 
and more earnest work for the unsaved. 

To preach the gospel,^ ^ repeated the leader ; that 
is the duty of each Christian. To preach the gospel. 
How are you going to do it ? 

How are you going to do it ? That was a ques- 
tion which followed Jessie to her homeward-bound 
car. She sat and looked out of the window as the car 
went along, and she wondered how she could preach the 
gospel any more effectually than she had done heretofore. 

have not been much of a preacher, confessed 
Jessie to herself. “ How can I do it ? 

Not to go around in the spirit of self-righteousness, 
saying, am holier than other people, therefore I 
have a right to preach at them.^^ 

Oh, no ! That was not it at all. Jessie had seen a 
few Christians who once in a while made the mistake 
of talking that way, not intentionally perhaps, but ex- 


22 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


hibiting an apparent feeling of superiority that made 
their words somewhat unpalatable to others. She did 
not intend to imitate such workers. 

To preach the gospel. How are you going to do 
it?” 

The leader’s question rang in the girl’s ears. She 
thought of her own life. How, within its limitations, 
might she preach the gospel ” ? Had she not already 
tried to preach it ? 

And yet there had come to her, as there sometimes 
comes even to more faithful, efficient workers, a sense 
of the fact that one has not been nearly enough in 
earnest about striving to save souls, and one cries out : 

Lord, show me what to do ! Lord, help me to be 
more faithful ! ” 

For it is he, alone, who can show us our work. 

I am not going to say I want to be a foreign mis- 
sionary, and then neglect the heathen at my own door, 
the way that woman did whom I overheard about,” 
resolved Jessie. 

Did she really have any opportunity to bring the 
gospel to others? Was there any audience for her 
preaching ? What persons did she meet yesterday, for 
instance ? Who came to the house ? 

I don’t know that anybody came,” thought Jessie, 
trying to remember. ^^Well, yes, — of course the 
milk boy came, the way he always does. But then 


RESOLVING. 


23 


Well; what then? That milk boy had been coining 
every day for months. Had she ever found out 
whether he was a Christian or not ? Did she know 
about him? Had she ever said one single word to 
make him think that the people in that house had any 
different aim in life from the people in other houses 
where he delivered milk? No, she had not. She 
believed she had prayed for that boy a little. But to 
speak to him about this matter, to give him just one 
invitation or bit of help toward being a Christian, she 
had not done that. 

I believe I was thinking about being a missionary 
yesterday, when the milk boy came,^^ remembered 
J essie. 

Must a person be, then, distinctly set before her eyes 
as a heathen, before she saw clearly enough to try to 
do anything for his or her soul ? A bit of remem- 
bered verse ran through Jessie’s mind, as she looked 
out of the car window. It was verse with a prayer 
in it ; 

Touch my blind eyes, and bid them wake 
To see thy tasks along the way — 

Thy errands which my hands may take, 

And do them gladly for thy sake. 

will do it,” resolved Jessie, soberly. will 
try to be a better preacher.” 

And, while she preached to others, this temper of 
hers, what was she to do with that? Yield to it? 


24 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


Preach one thing, and practice another? Supposing 
she were a real missionary just now, off in a foreign 
land, among heathen, would she dare let little things 
provoke her? Would she not feel compelled to be 
patient, lest she should cause a reproach against the 
religion she had come so far to bring to the heathen ? 

And it must be harder to keep one’s temper always 
among heathen, than it is to be patient here at home,” 
reflected Jessie, remembering what a rude, impatient 
heathen the poor Karen slave, Ko-thah-byu, had proved 
himself, before Dr. Judson and Mr. and Mrs. Wade 
agreed to take him home and try to live with him, 
rather than give up all effort for his conversion. The 
patient efforts of the missionaries for this poor Karen 
were rewarded, for he became the first convert from 
his nation, and for thirteen years went about among 
his countrymen, telling them of the gospel of Jesus, 
and many of them were converted. And yet the mis- 
sionaries had to be very patient with Ko-thah-byu. 

If I cannot be patient in a civilized Christian home, 
what kind of a missionary would I be among the hea- 
then ? ” Jessie questioned herself. 

Was this one reason why the Lord had so far kept 
her from going as a missionary ? Was she not prepared 
for this larger service that she craved ? Did her tem- 
per stand in the way ? 

Very grave were the eyes that looked out of the win- 
dow as the car sped on. Jessie was thinking deeply. 


EESOLVING. 


25 

By-and-by she drew a little blank-book out of her pocket. 
In the book she wrote these three resolutions : 

1. With God’s help I will learn to control my 
temper. 

2. Although now I am compelled to live in this 
country, away from foreign mission fields, I will try to 
do everything I can find to do to aid foreign missions, 
trusting that God will some time let me go as a mis- 
sionary. 

^^3. I will try to do all I can for the salvation of 
those about me.” 

Jessie looked at the resolutions after she had written 
them. 

I don’t know but number three ought to be number 
two,” she said to herself. Anyway, I mean them all, 
in whichever order I put them.” 

She put the little book away in her pocket again. 

The next unconverted person that comes to our 
house, I am going to speak to,” she resolved. 

Her gray eyes looked up at the sky. There was a 
prayer in her heart for help. She could not speak 
to others without asking for higher wisdom than her own. 

The next day, Jessie had just finished the noon dishes 
when there came a knock at the door. A boy of about 
thirteen stood there. 

‘‘ May I have some violets ? ” he asked. 

Yes,” answered Jessie. Go and pick what you 
want.” 


26 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


She went back to the kitchen to put away the tins. 
As she shut the cupboard door^ Jessie suddenly thought 
of one of her resolutions of yesterday. This boy was 
the first unconverted person she had met since she 
made that resolution. She did not believe this lad was 
a Christian. He used to attend the brothers’ ” school^ 
a Catholic institution not far away. But the boy’s father 
had not been satisfied with the little amount of arithmetic 
his son was being taught by the brothers/’ and so 
had taken the boy away and put him in the public 
school. 

Jessie placed the last tin in the cupboard and stood 
irresolute. AVhat should she say to this boy ? Why 
had he been the first unconverted person who had come 
to the house ? Did the Lord, who knew of her resolu- 
tion, send this boy to her? What should she do? 
Was it anything to her whether he were a Christian or 
not? 

Yes, it was something to her, of course. She wished 
that all might come to a knowledge of the truth. But 
this boy ! What could she say ? 

Jessie stepped hesitatingly toward the door. She 
went out. 

^ To preach the gospel,’ ” she repeated. How 
am I going to do it ? Lord, help me.” 

Picking violets is long work. The boy was still 
picking diligently when Jessie found him. He looked 
up at her. Jessie smiled. 


EESOLVING. 


27 


It is a good deal of work to pick them, isn’t it ? ” 
she commented. 

Then she saw the boy’s arithmetic lying on top of 
the steps leading to the gate. 

Is that your arithmetic ? ” asked Jessie, stooping 
and picking up the book. Why, that is the same kind 
of an arithmetic that I used to study — Robinson’s ! 
How far are you in it ? ” 

Over to the page that’s turned down,” answered 
the boy. 

Jessie found the page. It was one giving a list 
of examples in the division of one decimal by an- 
other. 

There’s one example I can’t do,” continued the boy ; 

I’ll show you which one it is.” 

He took the book. 

Here, this is it,” he explained, pointing with his 
stained forefinger to the example. I tried all the 
morning in school to get the answer, and I couldn’t.” 

^ Divide one by seven,’ ” read Jessie ; I guess I 
can do that. I will get a pencil and paper and show 
you.” 

She went into the house and came out again in a 
moment. She was trying to plan what she meant to 
say to him. Arithmetic had not turned her from her 
purpose at all. 

Sitting on the steps Jessie did the example, and then 
tried to explain to the boy the manner in which he 


28 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


should always point off, in the division of one decimal 
by another. 

Perhaps it was the decimal point that troubled 
you/’ suggested Jessie. I should not be surprised. 
Do you think you understand it now ? ” 

I guess so/^ replied the boy ; but Jessie^ detecting 
a little doubt in his tone^ went through the explana- 
tion again, h) make it more clear to him. 

I think I can do it now/^ returned the boy, after 
she finished talking. 

You are trying to learn arithmetic well now, are 
you ? ” continued Jessie. 

Yes’m,’^ answered the boy. You need to know 
arithmetic when you go into business. A man ought 
to know it. It’s lots of help.” 

I wonder,” Jessie went on, — and she could feel 
herself color a little as she said it, for she was not 
used to speaking of such things very often, unless it 
were in church or Sunday-school, — I wonder if you 
are trying as hard to be a Christian as you are to 
learn arithmetic ? ” 

It was almost the only way of which she could 
think to introduce the subject that had been in her 
mind ever since she left the kitchen. 

The boy looked down at his violets. 

^^Yes’m,” he answered; but Jessie felt that his 
answer was not that of a person who cared much 
about the matter. 


RESOLVING. 


29 


If s a good deal more important to be sure we are 
Christians than it is to understand arithmetic, you 
know/^ continued Jessie, gently. Our souls are 
worth more than anything else we have.^^ 

Yes’m,^^ replied the boy. 

He went down the steps. 

Good-bye,^ ^ said he. 

Good-bye,’^ repeated Jessie. 

She did not feel satisfied with what she had said. 
She felt that she ought to have made more plain to the 
boy what it is to be a real Christian. He was removed 
now, it was true, from the daily influence of the Catli- 
olic brothers,^^ but Jessie felt that the lad was very 
ignorant. 

I wish I had known better how to talk to him,’’ 
she said to herself. 

What was that promise in the Bible ? 

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 
who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, 
and it shall be given him.” 

Would not the Lord especially give wisdom to those 
who did not know which words were the best to speak 
about him to others ? 

I wonder,” Jessie questioned herself, remembering 
how awkward she had felt when she asked the boy 
that question, if I were a missionary in a foreign 
country, if I would feel so confused when I spoke to 
heathen people about Christianity ? What sort of a 


30 


Jessie’s thkee eesolutions. 


missionary would I be if I didn’t try to talk to people 
about becoming Christians any more than I have done 
in this country ? ” 

That question troubled her somewhat. Jessie, look- 
ing narrowly back at her life, felt that, restricted as 
her opportunities were, there had yet been many peo- 
ple to whom she might have spoken a word, and had 
not. Was this the spirit of one who wished to be a 
missionary ? The question troubled her still more 
that afternoon when, glancing through a little mission- 
ary pamphlet, she found an article on The Volun- 
teer’s Preparation for the Field.” One paragraph 
struck her forcibly : Preparation gained by participa- 
tion in religious work. Home mission effort and for- 
eign are similar. One can, therefore, learn his future 
trade by working at it now. Personal effort is coming 
into greater prominence abroad than in the early his- 
tory of missions. Try it with an unconverted friend. 
If you do not care enough for his soul to attempt its 
salvation, why should you care for a heathen’s ? ” 

What a question that was ! Was it not also a sug- 
gestion of truth ? Had she not in this land now an 
opportunity to see whether she was really moved by a 
longing for the conversion of others, or whether some 
other motive influenced her to look toward heathen lands ? 

Try it with an unconverted friend. If you do 
not care enough for his soul to attempt its salvation, 
why should you care for a heathen’s ? ” 


CHAPTER III. 


LOOKING FOR HEATHEN. 

God had one only Son, and he was a missionary . — David 
Livingstone. 

^ ^ T WILL start early enough to invite any children 
on the road/^ thought Jessie, looking at 
the clock. 

It was Sunday morning. The Sunday-school that 
Jessie attended met at half past nine. Often, while 
walking the short distance to church, Jessie found 
children whom she unsuccessfully invited to come to 
Sunday-school. The Catholics were apt to be going 
home a little before nine o^clock from morning mass, so 
Jessie frequently met the children of such people. It 
seemed as though many of the children had been 
warned against Protestant Sunday-schools, and although 
Jessie never mentioned the fact that her Sunday-school 
was opposed to Catholicism, one boy answered her in- 
vitation with the words, I^m a Catholic.’^ We^re 
all Catholics,’^ was the excuse given by another child. 

No’m ; IVe got to go to church,’^ some one else said, 
which meant returning to the Catholic church at ten 
o’clock. One intelligent-looking little girl, who carried 


32 


Jessie’s three resolutio^s^s. 


milk, and with whom Jessie walked and talked a little 
once or twice on her way, gave a polite but firm refusal 
when Jessie invited her to Sunday-school. Jessie had 
not said a word about the Sunday-school being a Bap- 
tist institution, but the wise-faced child evidently sus- 
pected it, for she immediately responded : No’m ; I 
go to church ; I’m a Catholic.” 

Jessie did not attempt to refute the implication that 
her invitation had been to a Baptist school, but she did 
continue to walk on with the little milk girl. 

Do you have any Sunday-school at your church ? ” 
inquired Jessie. 

There is a Sunday-school, but it’s for the Portu- 
guese children,” answered the child. 

This was the first and only time, however, that 
Jessie heard of any such provision being made by the 
Catholics for the instruction of the Portuguese. There 
were a good many people of this nationality scattered 
through the district, and almost all of the Portuguese 
were Catholics, Jessie had tried before this to obtain 
some hold on some of the Portuguese children, but in 
vain. 

This morning, going across the hill, Jessie saw two 
Portuguese boys, and stopped to invite them to Sunday- 
school. One of them said that they would have to go 
home first, and ask permission to attend. Jessie was 
so accustomed to this answer from Catholic children 
that she walked on without any expectation of seeing 


LOOKING FOR HEATHEN. 


33 


the boys at school. In fact^ she had invited Portuguese 
children so many times with such poor success that it 
was only a sense of duty that made her continue her 
efforts. 

Jessie walked farther over the hill, and stopped, 
hesitating, at a corner. She knew that about a block 
and a half away there were two families living side by 
side. Half a dozen Irish children were in one Catholic 
family, and some weeks ago the father had promised 
Jessie that the children might come to Sunday-school. 
They had not appeared, however, and neither had four 
other neglected children in the next little house. 

I wonder if I had better go try again ? Jessie 
questioned herself. 

She walked down the hill in that direction. At the 
foot was a white house. Jessie did not know who 
lived there, but as she came near one of the Portuguese 
boys whom she had that morning invited to Sunday- 
school ran out the back door. He sped across the road 
just as Jessie stepped across the muddy little ditch. 

My father says my clothes aiff t good enough to go 
to Sunday-school,^^ announced the boy, standing still in 
front of Jessie. 

Oh, never mind about the clothes,’^ returned 
Jessie, hastily, as she surveyed the lad from head to 
foot. ^^Your clothes are good enough. Tell your 
father I say so.’^ 

There was only a patch on one knee. The boy^s 


34 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


face was very clean. He ran back across the road, and 
disappeared inside the back door of the house. Jessie 
walked across the road. At the open side window of 
the house she saw a young woman, an older one, a 
young man, and several children. 

^^May the children come to the Sunday-school?” 
asked Jessie. 

There was a hushed consultation within. A bright- 
faced young Portuguese man put his head out the 
window. 

They’ll be ready pretty soon,” he answered, in 
very good English. You come in the front door.” 

And Jessie, very much amazed that she had really 
found any Portuguese that were willing to come to 
Sunday-school, walked around to the front of the house. 
The boy who had spoken about his clothes ran down 
the steps and opened the gate for her. A smiling, 
dark-eyed little girl stood inside the front room. She 
was already dressed in her best, with a white handker- 
chief fastened by a large, black-headed shawl pin on 
her left side. Jessie thought that the child had perhaps 
just come home from morning mass. The Portuguese 
young man who had spoken from the side window 
came into the room. Jessie sat on a chair inside the 
open front door. 

The little rooms had no carpets on them, but the 
floors seemed quite clean, and through the open doors 
Jessie could see a good cooking stove in one room and 


LOOKING FOE HEATHEN. 


35 


a white bed in another. The Portuguese father came 
and looked into the front room. Jessie and he nodded 
at each other, and he went away. He seemed to be an 
austerely sober man, but the oldest son, called Manuel, 
was friendly. 

The mother, Mrs. Pereira, went quickly about, 
making presentable the other two children who were 
to go to Sunday-school. She took a white apron out 
of a small yellow chest in the bedroom, and got a 
white handkerchief for one little girl. Then she went 
into the kitdien, and Jessie saw her walk past the 
open door, holding a nicely ironed, stiff collar out 
before her. She intended the collar for a boy, whom 
Jessie had not yet seen, and who was evidently in 
another room opening from the kitchen. 

Meantime the young Portuguese man, Manuel, sat 
in a chair near a large glass case which held a colored 
picture of the virgin surrounded by various trinl^ets 
of brilliant hue. The entire case was evidently con- 
sidered very grand-looking, and was the chief adorn- 
ment of the room. The case and its picture and 
ornaments must have cost a sacrifice on the part of the 
poor Portuguese, but the virgin was properly honored 
according to their ideas. 

We have a class for young men in our Sunday- 
school,^^ remarked Jessie. The teacher is a young man 
who would be glad to have you in his class, I know.^^ 

The young Portuguese smiled. 


36 


Jessie’s thkee eesolutions. 


^^Next Sunday I will go/’ he promised. will 
go every Sunday; but to-day I must go over the 
mountains.” 

Once again Jessie wondered at the readiness of this 
family to promise attendance at the Sunday-school. 
Did they think that she was a Catholic ? Jessie hap- 
pened to glance down at her jacket. Pinned on it was 
her aluminum badge of the B. Y. P. U. She always 
wore the badge, and had thought nothing about its pos- 
sible impression upon these Portuguese. She wondered 
now if they could have mistaken the badge for some 
symbol, she knew not what, and hence their readiness 
to comply with her wishes? Anyway, the children 
would go with her once to Sunday-school, whatever 
the motive was. The three children who had appeared 
seemed friendly. One of the little girls smiled when- 
ever Jessie’s eyes met hers, and Franc, the boy who 
had opened the gate, now stood at the door next to 
Jessie, and was evidently not hostile, although he was 
a grave lad and Jessie thought he took the matter of 
going to Sunday-school in the light of a religious act 
which must be performed, much as he might say his 
prayers to the virgin or the saints. 

Finally, the invisible boy of the collar appeared. 
He proved to be a little younger than Franc, being 
about nine, and was the other boy whom Jessie had 
invited while crossing the hill. 

Jessie and her little procession went out and around 


LOOKING FOR HEATHEN. 


37 


the house. They were going up the road when the 
mother, Mrs. Pereira, who was watching at the open 
side-window of the kitchen, called some command in 
Portuguese, and one of the children, apparently in 
obedience to the order, pulled her apron up further on 
her shoulder. The white apron was clean, if there was 
a hole in one shoulder, and Jessie felt quite elated as 
she led the four children onward. 

suppose missionaries feel somewhat this way 
when they induce heathen children to come to school 
and be taught,^^ thought Jessie, only I suppose 
heathen children would not be as clean as these. I 
am surprised to see how clean these four children are. 
I have seen so many Portuguese children who needed 
cleaning.’^ Franc walked beside her. She asked him 
questions, and he spoke in so low a voice that it was 
necessary to listen diligently in order to understand 
what he said, but Jessie learned from him that he had 
worked in the cotton mills about a year, and that he 
intended to go to the evening public school. This, 
then, was probably what made so grave a person of the 
boy. He was already helping to earn the living for 
the family. He had felt responsibility. 

And what is your name ? asked Jessie, turning 
to the younger boy. 

Lonze,^^ was the answer, as nearly as Jessie could 
understand, but the older boy translated it as ^^Lau- 
rence.^^ The little girls were named Delpha and 


38 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

Jetro.” Delpha was the one who smiled whenever 
Jessie looked around. Delpha had rings in her ears, 
and Jetro had her little dress buttoned in front, up to 
her chin, with big, white buttons. 

Jessie met, near the church, the one who taught the 
young men’s Bible class, and informed him that she 
thought that Manuel Pereira would be one of the pupils 
of that class next Sunday. 

‘‘ I am very glad, I am sure,” cordially responded 
the teacher. I hope he will come.” 

Jessie marshalled her four Portuguese children into 
the church and up to a row of the chairs. The two 
Portuguese boys sat at her left hand, and the two little 
girls at her right. Two of Jessie’s regular scholars, 
boys who usually sat with her during the opening 
exercises, came in, but seeing the new scholars beside 
Jessie, sat behind her. 

During the singing, the Portuguese children looked 
at the places which Jessie found in the singing-books, 
and Delpha tried to sing a little, although the tunes 
were unfamiliar. All four of the Portuguese children 
were very quiet as they stood with the rest of the 
school during prayer. When the classes were formed, 
the superintendent, knowing that the instruction given 
to the Portuguese children must be extremely simple, 
and perhaps too elementary to hold the interest of the 
two American boys, who were the only members of 
Jessie’s regular class present that Sunday, put the boys 


LOOKING FOR HEATHEN. 


39 


into another teacher’s class^ leaving her the Portu- 
guese, The superintendent spoke kindly to the four 
strangers, and gave Jessie some primary class papers 
for the children. 

Jessie prepared to write in her class book the names 
of her new scholars, as they promised her they would 
come every Sunday. Thoughts of a large Portuguese 
class arose before her enthusiastic vision. 

I wonder if I could have a little room to teach 
them in ? ” she thought. I wish, even with these 
four scholars, I had some little place where I could 
teach them simple tunes to sing ; hymns that contain 
the heart of the gospel truth. I hope I have made a 
beginning with the Portuguese, anyway.’’ 

Meantime she began to write the names of the four 
Portuguese, who were sitting so quietly that Jessie, 
accustomed to the mischief of American boys, con- 
gratulated herself. She thought of the Chinese boys 
who are taught absolute obedience at home, and the 
greatest respect for any one who teaches. Perhaps the 
Portuguese might also possess part of these oriental 
virtues as scholars. 

guess I’m eight, and I guess I’m seven,” an- 
nounced Delpha, whom Jessie questioned, writing the 
child’s name. 

J etro Pereira was six years old, Lawrence was nine 
and ten,” and Franc guessed ” he was thirteen. 

The lesson of the day was in Proverbs, but Jessie 


40 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


omitted it, and took for her subject, the story of the 
Christ. She did not know how long these Portuguese 
children would continue to be her scholars. She 
knew, at least, that she was their teacher for this one 
Sunday. She would make the way of salvation as 
plain as she could to them this day. 

The children evidently knew about some incidents 
in Christ’s life. They knew of his being in a manger 
— kind of like a little cow about him,” Franc ex- 
plained, having evidently seen some picture represent- 
ing animals around the humble cradle of the Christ 
child. And when Jessie drew on a piece of white 
paper the shape of a cross, the children knew what it 
was. Jessie questioned them about what was put on 
Christ’s head, and Franc, unable to remember the 
English word thorns ” said, Like what roses have.” 

The children did not know the story of blind Bar- 
timeus, and Jessie told it, as well as the story of 
Christ’s raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. The 
four scholars sat quietly listening, and Jessie appreci- 
ated their attention. 

I suppose they have been taught that they must 
behave when they go to the Catholic church, and they 
think they must be good here too,” thought she. 

She taught them three very short verses. The first 
was, ^^Thou God seest me.” She explained it, and 
had each child say it separately a number of times. 
Jessie mentioned various things that God would see if 


LOOKING FOR HEATHEN. 


41 


done, and when she was talking about stealing, Franc 
said, My mother would whip me if I steal.^^ 

Jessie did not say a word about the worship of the 
virgin, thinking it best not to mention her at all, but 
tried to impress upon the children the necessity of ask- 
ing Jesus for forgiveness. She taught two more 
verses, Christ died for us,^^ and God is love.^^ By 
the time that the Sunday-school session was nearly 
over, the four Portuguese seemed to have learned the 
verses quite well. Most clearly had she tried to put 
before the children the importance of seeking forgive- 
ness from Christ, and Franc said he did do so. Jessie 
wondered if he meant that he did so through the inter- 
cession of the virgin or the saints, but she did not 
ask. 

One teacher has been out this week, and gathered 
in a whole class,^^ stated the superintendent from his 
table, and Jessie knew he meant her class. A teacher 
in front of her bent around to look at the four Portu- 
guese. Jessie, meantime, laid enthusiastic plans for 
her future work among these foreigners. 

The session of the school ended, and the Portuguese 
children went away, reiterating their promise to come 
again next Sunday. Jessie thought that perhaps she 
might get a Portuguese New Testament for each of the 
two families of her scholars, as she had discovered that 
Delpha Sebastiano belonged to a different family from 
the Pereir^. Franc had said that his oldest brother. 


42 Jessie’s theee eesoletions. 

Manuel, could read Portuguese, and so could their 
father, Mr. Pereira. Delpha Sebastiano also had 
stated that her father could read Portuguese, some ; 
she qualified her remark as if aware that her father’s 
knowledge of reading was not very extensive. But 
Jessie thought, if she could, she would get two New 
Testaments in Portuguese for the families. There was 
one problem that puzzled her. Jessie had seen in the 
Pereira household a girl of about eighteen, who had 
looked into the front room from the kitchen. Jessie 
had included this girl in her invitations to Sunday- 
school, and the older brother, Manuel, had said that 
she would go. But afterward, in questioning the 
children about the family, Jessie had understood Franc 
to say that this girl, whose name was Maria, could 
not talk. 

Oh, is she dumb ? ” asked Jessie. 

She talks so I don’t know w’hat she says,” ex- 
plained the boy. 

Jessie wondered now, how she could reach such a 
girl, one who could not talk Portuguese so that her own 
brother could understand, and one who probably could 
not speak English at all. And in the other home there 
was a young man, a Manuel Sebastiano, Delpha said. 
Perhaps, if Manuel Pereira came to Sunday-school, 
Manuel Sebastiano might also be persuaded to come, as 
the two Portuguese families seemed to be very friendly 
with one another. Delpha had said that they had sold 


LOOKING FOE HEATHEN. 


43 


the Pereiras the house they now lived in. The Sebas- 
tianos lived in the next house^ although Delpha seemed 
like one of the Pereira family, she was so much at home 
among them. 

It’s like being a missionary, just a little,” Jessie 
said to herself, as she went home. Oh, I am so glad 
I found those Portuguese to-day.” 

She remembered that, coming over that morning, 
she had passed a grocery store much frequented by Por- 
tuguese and had seen a dozen or more Portuguese young 
men, with a drum and cornets, forming themselves into 
ranks to march. She did not know where they were 
going, but she supposed to some Portuguese picnic. 
The young men played passably well, and the sound of 
the cornets drew young Portuguese and other boys to 
witness what was happening. 

Jessie had passed the store, noticing the company and 
wishing that such things need not be on Sunday ; wish- 
ing too, that all these Portuguese were not bound so 
closely to the church of Rome. Perhaps some of these 
young men had been at mass that morning. Others 
might not care enough about religion to go inside a 
church, even if it were a Catholic one. Jessie had gone 
on, wondering if she, or any one else, could ever do 
anything for the Portuguese. She was more hopeful 
about them now as she walked home. 

I have made a beginning,” she told herself, cheer- 
fully. If I cannot go to Burma, or China, or Japan, 


44 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


or Africa, or Ecuador, just now, I have made a begin- 
ning among the Portuguese ! Four children are not 
to be despised, and I will not be discouraged about the 
Portuguese again.^^ 

She was happy in planning for the future as she 
hurried down the hill and across a little bridge, and up 
another little hill toward the street on which her home 
stood. She thought of her third resolution : I will 
try to do all I can for the salvation of those about me.^^ 

When she reached home and went about her work, 
her thoughts were still busy with her resolution, plan- 
ning what she could do to carry it into effect. 

While washing the dishes the thought came to her ; 

That includes the Portuguese ! Dear Lord, help 
me to reach them.’^ 

With this prayer, realizing she was invoking great 
and powerful aid, she rested content. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE TKIAI^ OF MISSION WOKK. 

“I am only one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I 
can do something; what I can do, I ought to do; and what I 
ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.’’ 

J ESSIE did not succeed in getting a Portuguese New 
Testament before the next Sunday. 

That’s a dialect that we don’t have much call for,” 
said the gentleman of whom she tried to buy a New 
Testament in Portuguese. 

I think I shall have to wait till the next time I 
go over to the city,” Jessie concluded at last. It’s a 
wonder there are not more calls for Portuguese New 
Testaments, considering how many Portuguese live 
here. I wonder if Christian people are not trying 
very much to work among the Portuguese? From 
the way that bookseller spoke, one would hardly im- 
agine how many Portuguese there are scattered through 
this county. There are a good many in this town. 
How many there must be in this whole county who 
need the gospel ! ” 

Meantime, Sunday approached and something must 
be done. She must prepare herself for that class. 

45 


46 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


Jessie had no picture cards with Bible texts, but she 
had some very pretty, good-sized advertising cards, 
ornamented with pictures of brightly colored birds. 
The advertisement part of the cards did not take up much 
room, only a little space down in the corner of each card. 

I believe I will use some of those cards for my 
Portuguese class,” thought Jessie. 

So she took four of the bird cards and with a pair 
of scissors easily scraped off the words of the clothing 
house advertisement without injuring the cards very 
much. The bright birds alone remained. Jessie then 
took her pen and ink and wrote a Bible text beneath 
each picture. 

I am sorry I cannot write the text in Portuguese,” 
she reflected. ^^If I had a Portuguese Testament, I 
could copy a text in printing letters. I will try to get 
a Testament before long.” 

She had decided to put on the cards the little prayer : 

Create in me a clean heart, O God.” 

I will talk to the children about that next Sunday,” 
determined Jessie. 

So at the bottom of each card, in the large print 
letters, such as a child learns first, Jessie had written 
the little prayer. She did not know whether any of 
the Portuguese children — ^unless, perhaps, it might be 
Franc — could read at all, but she would make the large 
print letters so that there might be a possibility of their 
being read. 


THE TKIALS OF MISSION WORK. 


47 


With these cards inside her Bible, Jessie journeyed 
toward the church the following Sunday morning. On 
the way, she saw two small boys, and stopped to ask 
them if they would not come to Sunday-school. One 
boy did not know ; the other said he must ask his 
grandmother. This boy ran across the road, where two 
women were talking together before a small house. 
Jessie could hear the boy telling his grandmother that 
the lady wanted him to go to Sunday-school. The 
grandmother looked at him. 

^^Get along into the house with you,^^ she cried, 
threateningly. Going to Sunday-school ! 

Jessie could not hear exactly what more the woman 
said, but the word Sunday-school was spoken again 
in contemptuous tones. 

The little boy went inside the gate as his grand- 
mother commanded. The other boy went by. 

And are you going to Sunday-school ? asked the 
grandmother, in more civil tones, but with sarcasm in 
her voice. 

Evidently the second boy was not hers, so she had 
not the authority over him she had over the other one. 
But the second boy was wise. He shook his head 
silently and passed on. Jessie saw the other unfortu- 
nate victim of her invitation going up the path inside 
the gate. 

I am sorry I invited them,^^ murmured Jessie to 
herself, in consternation. I had no idea that those 


48 


Jessie’s theee eesolutions. 


two women over there were Catholics and had any 
connection with that boy or I would not have said 
anything.” 

The two women had not pretended to notice Jessie 
at all across the street, but the girl knew they had seen 
her, and perhaps some of the remarks were meant for 
her benefit. 

I will be more careful with my invitations next 
time,” she determined, hurrying on toward the turn in 
the road which would lead her to the houses where the 
Portuguese scholars lived. Jessie wondered if they 
would be ready to go with her to Sunday-school. She 
had come early enough, so that if she had to wait for 
the children to be made ready, she would not be late to 
school. 

She could not see anybody outside the Pereira’s white 
house as she approached it from the rear. She was 
afraid at first that the children might not yet have 
come home from morning mass at the Catholic church. 

The side window of the kitchen was open, and Jessie 
saw inside the room the eldest daughter, the one whom 
her brother had said he could not understand when she 
spoke. The Portuguese girl was looking out, watching 
Jessie. 

May the children go to Sunday-school this morn- 
ing?” asked Jessie, smiling up at the face inside the 
kitchen. 

The Portuguese girl did not attempt to answer. 


THE TEIALS OF MISSION WORK. 


49 


She only looked at Jessie, and then went away from 
the window, presumably to communicate with some one 
else. 

Jessie walked around to the front of the house. 
There were the two little Portuguese girls in soiled 
dresses. Their brown feet were bare. 

It is a good thing I came early enough so they will 
have time to get ready before Sunday-school,^^ thought 
Jessie. Delpha smiled as Jessie spoke over the fence, 
asking : 

^^Are you going to Sunday-school this morning, 
dear ? 

Yes,^^ answered Delpha. 

But the front door opened, and the father, Mr. 
Pereira, appeared on the little porch. 

^^Good morning, Jessie greeted him; ^^may the 
children go to Sunday-school to-day 

The Portuguese man sternly shook his head. 

No,^^ he answered ; they no go. You no teach 
Maree.^^ 

He talked on, but in English so poorly pronounced 
that Jessie could hardly follow it. She caught the 
words Maree,^^ priest,’^ and understood that he said 
her church was not the same kind of a church as the 
other church down there, meaning the Catholic. 
Jessie wondered how he knew that she did not believe 
in the worship of the virgin, or ^^Mare6,^^ as Mr. 
Pereira called her. 

D 


50 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


am sure I never mentioned her last Sunday/^ 
thought Jessie. 

Aloud she replied : But the young man told me 
that the children would go to Sunday-school every 
Sunday.^^ 

I know/^ rejoined the father, and then he went on 
trying to explain, but the words were mostly unintelli- 
gible to Jessie. The idea was not, however. She knew 
well enough what that was. Her church was not a 
Catholic one, and he would not have the children go 
where Maree ’’ was not adored. 

The father saw that Jessie could not well comprehend 
his words, and turning to Delpha, told her to translate. 

Delpha’s clear voice piped forth, as she swung her 
bare foot on the railing of the little porch. He says 
your church isnT like his, down there.’^ 

No go ! I won’t let ’em ! ” definitely ended the 
father. 

I am sorry,” answered Jessie, gently. 

The Portuguese mother had come to the porch. 
Jessie leaned over the gate and held out her bouquet 
of roses. 

Do you want them ? ” she questioned, as Delpha’s 
brown feet ran down the steps. 

Thank you,” returned the child, and Jessie turned 
to go, after bidding them good-bye. 

Good-bye, good-bye ! ” called Delpha, waving her 
hand. 


THE TRIALS OF MISSION WORK. 


51 


Jessie went around the house to climb the road. She 
stopp^ an instant outside the back gate. From her 
Bible she took one of the bright-colored cards with 
Create in me a clean heart, O God/^ written on it. 
She put the card inside the upper part of the gate, so 
that whoever came out of the house could not fail to 
see the bright picture. Then she started to go up the 
hill road. 

But before she had reached the corner of the block 
she heard a cry behind her. 

Good-bye ! Good-bye ! called two voices, and 
turning, Jessie saw that the back door of the cottage 
was open, and Delpha and Jetro stood there waving 
their hands. 

Good-bye ! good-bye ! good-bye ! chorused the 
children again, and Jessie turned back. 

They ran down the steps to the little gate as Jessie 
came toward it. There, before she arrived, the chil- 
dren found the picture card. Another younger child 
was inside the gate. Jessie gave them two more cards, 
so that each child had one with the same prayer. 
Create in me a clean heart, O God.^^ 

It means that we must ask God for a new heart/’ 
explained Jessie, hastily, not knowing what Mr. and 
Mrs. Pereira might think of her talking to the chil- 
dren over the back gate. 

Yes,” returned Delpha, as if she understood. 
Good-bye. Too bad we don’t go to-day.” 


52 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

The little girls waved their hands after Jessie until 
she reached the corner of the block, where she would 
turn to go out of sight. 

Good-bye ! Good-bye ! ” the childish cry came 
after her, and Jessie’s eyes were fiill of tears as she 
waved farewell. She coidd do nothing more for the 
children. The parents wished to do what they thought 
right and best for their children’s welfare. There could 
be no doubt of that fact. 

But the children’s Good-bye ” meant so much in 
Jessie’s ears. It was not good-bye to her alone, but 
good-bye to the instruction they ought to receive now ; 
good-bye to the truths of the Bible that Borne for- 
bids her people to read ; good-bye, perhaps, to salva- 
tion. 

Good-bye ! Good-bye ! ” 

It was no wonder that the tears welled up in Jessie’s 
eyes, and overfloAved as she walked up the hillside 
alone. 

O Church of Borne ! ” she murmured ; how 
strong you are ! What can I do against your 
strength ? ” 

She had had only one Sunday in which to impress 
these children. She had taught them as faithfully as 
she knew how, in the short time alloted to her. Had 
it done any good at all to teach them ? And she could 
do nothing more for these children, nothing ! It was 
all over. 


THE TEIALS OF MISSION WORK. 


53 


Yes, there was one thing still remaining. She could 
pray for them. 

^^Dear Lord, enter into those families blinded by 
Romanism. Be with Delpha, and Jetro, and Laurence, 
and Franc. Bless the little truth I did have a chance to 
teach them. It was so little, dear Lord ; but it was 
all I could teach,^^ was what her heart said as she 
continued on her way. 

Did he not care ? Did he not take more interest in 
these children than she did ? Could she doubt it ? 

Jessie reached the Sunday-school room. She was 
early, and when the superintendent entered a few mo- 
ments later, Jessie confessed her failure. 

The superintendent smiled, and told her his own 
experience with some Portuguese children. There were 
several who lived on the road that he used to take in 
going to Sunday-school and other places, and he on 
week days, having a microscope with him, had become 
quite well acquainted and friendly with the Portuguese 
children by showing them flowers through the micro- 
scope. By-and-by he asked the children to come to 
Sunday-school. They said they could not. 

^^But why?^^ asked the superintendent. ^^Why 
canT you come ? 

Finally one of the children confessed : Father 
won’t let us.” 

So it was hard either to gain or to keep Portuguese 
scholars. 


54 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


At least/’ said Jessie to the teacher of the young 
men’s Bible class who sat near her^ and whom she had 
informed that he would not have the expected young 
Portuguese man, Manuel, as a scholar, ^‘1 did 'teach 
those children three Bible verses. I made the children 
repeat those verses again and again last Sunday. I 
don’t know as it did any good, for I suppose Mr. 
Pereira will tell the children to forget everything they 
learned at this Baptist Sunday-school as fast as pos- 
sible.” 

Probably,” returned the fellow-teacher. ^^And 
yet possibly the three verses may do some good. You 
cannot tell. Even as little as that may accomplish 
something.” 

As Jessie sorrowfully opened her Bible to the Sun- 
day-school lesson for the day, she remembered a saying 
of Charles Dudley Warner : In America we are con- 
fronted by degeneration as well as by barbarism, and 
as long as there are any people in the country, we shall 
never be out of a Christian job.” 

No, I suppose not,” gravely admitted the girl to 
herself ; but I don’t like to have this one taken out 
of my hands.” 

And then she remembered that this was similar to 
the trials that a foreign missionary might have to 
endure, the taking away from under her influence of 
children who had just begun to hear the truth and were 
the right age to receive it readily. It was a sore trial. 


THE TRIALS OF MISSION WORK. 


55 


And Jessie felt especially discouraged, because sbe had 
perceived the power of the Catholic Church over its 
adherents. 

^^Who can break such power her weak faith 
questioned ; and as she turned the leaves of her Bible, 
she found her answer : The battle is not yours, but 
God’s.^^ The Lord saveth not with sword and spear : 
for the battle is the Lord^s.^^ God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- 
found the things which are mighty ; and base things 
of the world, and things which are despised, hath God 
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to 
naught things that are : that no flesh should glory in 
his presence. Not by might, nor by power, but by 
my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. 

It was God^s battle, not hers. She had forgotten 
that. And she had become discouraged the first thing. 
She thought of Carey, working for seven years in India 
without a single convert, and then Krishna PaFs con- 
version ! Look at Mary Moffat, toiling to reach the 
heathen minds, not one man or woman seeming to be 
in the least interested in salvation ; and see that mis- 
sionary, when a friend in England wrote asking what 
presents would be of use to her, answering : Send us 
a communion service; we shall want it some day.^^ 
And Mary MoffaFs faith was rewarded, for although 
that communion service was long in coming, yet it 


56 


JESSIE S THREE EESOEUTTONS. 


came at last and just in time, for it arrived the day 
before the day on which the first six converts were to 
be received into the church ! Nearly three years had 
passed since Mary Moffat wrote her prophetic words 
asking for that communion service. God saw his 
servant's faith and granted her request. Jessie felt 
ashamed of her own faint-heartedness when she remem- 
bered the patient toil of such missionaries. Had not 
God the same power still ? Could he not conquer Ro- 
manism as w ell as heathenism ? 

Oh/^ she thought, it was only the other day that 
I was reading that Mr. Richards, Baptist missionary 
on the Congo, in Africa, had to w’^ork seven years before 
he saw a single convert at Banza Manteke ! Dear 
Lord, how far I fall behind thy missionaries ! Grant 
me patience in the work.^^ 

And turning to the day’s lesson, Jessie remembered 
that Judson too, had to wait years for a convert in 
Burma, and Morrison waited and worked seven years 
for a convert in China ! And how could she have for- 
gotten what she saw in ‘‘ The Kingdom,” that the first 
two converts among the fierce Matebele tribe in South 
Africa had been baptized after thirty-six years of mis- 
sionary labor ! 

What an amount of patience and consecration toil 
on such fields must demand ! Let us not be weary 
in well doing : for in due season we shall reap, if Ave 
faint not.” 


CHAPTEE V. 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 

“ Such as I have give I thee/’ said Peter to the lame beggar, 
God makes his human servants the channel of his grace to the 
needy. The heathen world lieth in the wicked one, helpless as 
the lame man, and like him can he raised. Such as you have, 
your prayers, your money, your life, are you giving them? Can 
you withhold them and he true to him who loved us and gave 
himself for us ? — Rev. John M. Foster. 

TESSIE went up the stairs of the free library^ and 
^ walked quietly into the room. She went across 
to the cases of reference books. She was bent on find- 
ing some information about the Portuguese from a re- 
ligious point of view. There did not seem to be much 
about them in the books and papers that were at home, 
although information concerning China and Assam, 
India and Burma, Africa, and various European and 
home mission fields abounded, for Aunt Abby and 
dossiers mother always kept a missionary corner 
in the book-case, and the boundaries of the corner^’ 
were constantly growing. The love for missions was 
very bright in the little home, and the missionary cor- 
ner of the book-case had much to do with that love. 
For it is impossible for us to be interested in anything 
that we do not know about, and we shall be much 


58 


Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 


more likely to know if we read^ than if we merely take 
our knowledge of missions from hearsay now and then. 
And no Christian ought to be ignorant of missionsrf 

Jessie found a book at last, and seating herself at a 
table, read the following concerning the Bible in Por- 
tuguese : 

‘‘ Of Portuguese versions, only two have become 
especially known. A Catholic version, with annota- 
tions by Anton Ferara de Figueiredo, was published 
in Lisbon, 1778-1790, in twenty-three volumes. The 
third edition, in seven volumes, and greatly improved, 
was published 1804-1819. A Protestant version is 
the translation of John Ferreira d’ Almeida. The new 
Testament was published at Batavia, in 1693 ; Am- 
sterdam, 1712; Tranquebar, 1765; the Old Testa- 
ment between 1719 and 1732, also at Tranquebar. A 
version based on Almeida’s translation was made by 
the Rev. Thomas Boys, and published at the expense 
of the Trinitarian Bible Society, London, 1843-47. 
Almeida’s version was often republished by the British 
and Foreign Bible Society, but because the style and 
language are so stiff and antiquated that it repels read- 
ers instead of attracting them, this edition was not so 
favorably received as was anticipated. From time to 
time this society issued revised editions, especially of 
the New Testament, in a modernized style and idiom, 
which appeared to give great satisfaction. In 1874, 
the same society issued at Lisbon a thoroughly revised 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


59 


edition of Almeida’s version. Another edition fol- 
lowed in 1877. The same society which^ since 1819 
published Figueiredo’s Bible, published in 1878 an 
edition with alternative readings from the Hebrew and 
Greek, under the care of the Rev. Robert Stewart. Be- 
sides the British Society, the American Bible Society 
published in 1859 an edition of the New Testament 
after a version made in London from the Greek. 

^^In spite of the many revisions the need of a 
better and more accurate translation of the Bible in 
the Portuguese language is generally recognized by the 
Protestant missionaries and laborers in Portugal and 
Brazil, and the American and British Bible Societies 
have taken steps for the formation of translation com- 
mittees in Spain and Brazil, for the production of a 
new version of the Scriptures, which will be acceptable 
on both sides of the Atlantic. The committee, repre- 
senting the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, and 
Wesleyan churches have prepared, under the presi- 
dency of Rev. R. Stewart, the Gospel of Matthew, 
which was published in 1886, and that of Mark in 
1877. As an interesting item we remark that the 
editor of a newpaper has asked and obtained leave to 
publish the new version in his paper.” 

Jessie’s face lighted up with interest as she read 
further : 

^^He thought the new version would interest the 
the Portuguese people, then ! ” she thought. They 


60 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


do care for such things ! They must^ or no editor 
would want to use space in his paper to publish the 
Scriptures.” 

She looked back on the page. 

I am proud of my denomination/’ she thought. 

The Baptists do aspire to the best things — accuracy 
and clearness in translation.” 

There was another item that pleased her, and gave 
her a new idea. A specimen verse of the Portuguese 
New Testament from John 3 : 16, was given in the 
encyclopaedia, and read as follows : 

Porque de tal maneira amou Deos ao mundo, que 
deo a seu Filho unigenito ; para que todo aquelle que 
nelle cr^, nao perega, mas tenha a vida eterna.” 

I know what I will do,” resolved Jessie, I will 
copy that verse, and take it home with me, as I have no 
Portuguese Testament yet, and I will make some copies 
of it on slips of paper and give them to the Portu- 
guese children, and pin the slips in places around where 
I know the Portuguese live. And perhaps, who knows, 
that Bible verse will be blessed to somebody. That is a 
verse that has been blessed to the English, and I 
don’t know why it should not be blessed to the 
Portuguese.” 

She procured a piece of paper and copied the words 
carefully. 

I am so glad to have that verse ! ” she said to 
herself. 


IDEAS FOE WOEK. 


61 


She would copy slips of that the next time she had a 
few spare minutes at home. 

There was an upper portion to the library, a gallery 
lined with books, reports, and bound magazines. Sev- 
eral divisions of the shelves were assigned to religious 
works. Any person might examine them, and Jessie 
climbed the narrow stairs, and tried to find something 
additional in the books about the topic on which she 
sought information. It seemed to be very difficult to 
find what she desired, but 1 in one book she discovered 
an account of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Por- 
tugal. 

‘‘ If the rest of the Roman Catholic priests had been 
expelled too, perhaps the Portuguese would be different 
nowadays,^ ^ thought Jessie."^ 

The gallery was quite dark, so she took the book to 
the head of the stairway, and there read of the Jesuit 
expulsion from Portugal, through the efforts of Ca- 
valho. Marquis of Pombal, minister of King Joseph 
Emanuel I. 

It was in Portugal,^^ she read, that they (the 
Jesuits) first received the heaviest blow. Pombal de- 
termined to put down the Jesuit influence in Portugal. 
He began, in 1757, by dismissing the Jesuit chaplains 
of the royal family, and by replacing them with ordi- 
nary priests. Other measures conceived in the same 
spirit followed. An attempt was made to assassinate 
the king. He was wounded, but not mortally. Some 


62 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


of the highest nobles, women as well as men, were 
arrested and brought to the scaffold. Jesuits with 
whom they were intimate were accused, without suf- 
ficient proof, of complicity in the plot. The whole 
society was charged with treasonable intentions. A 
decree was issued by which they were deposed from 
their places in all schools and universities, and ban- 
ished in a body from Portugal and its dependencies. 
They were conveyed to Italy in crowded ships, in which 
they endured much hardship.” 

Jessie glanced down at the clock. It was time to be 
going home. She had been away, giving two sisters 
their music lessons. She must hurry back to the little 
home to help about supper, but she went from the 
library with a glow of pleasure in her heart. 

I have found one more thing to do for home mis- 
sions,” she decided, thinking of the Portuguese Bible 
verse (John 3 : 16). ^^I wonder if Aunt Abby 

wouldn’t like to copy slips too ? Poor Aunt Abby ! 
She always tries to do all the good she can, and she has 
so few opportunities, being sick so much ! She writes 
a good, clear hand yet. I will tell her about this verse 
and show her my copy. She and I can write slips 
together.” 

Jessie intended to buy some Portuguese Testaments 
just as soon as she could afford to do so. But she was 
not sure whether the Portuguese men, in some families, 
might not destroy the T^taments. It would not make 


IDEAS FOE WOEK. 


63 


SO much difference, if the slips of paper were destroyed. 
They would cost nothing but time and labor, and could 
be readily replaced. Jessie resolved that when she 
bought the Portuguese Testaments, she would keep 
one herself, and copy other parts of Scripture besides 
John 3:16. In this way she could always have slips 
that would be so much better than Portuguese tracts — 
because they would be a part of the Bible. 

I am sure Aunt Abby will be delighted to help,’^ 
thought Jessie. I am so glad to have found a new 
idea in mission work ! 

After supper she went out again to try another plan 
of which she had thought in connection with missions. 
There was to be a foreign mission social at her church 
the next evening. Jessie had had a good many little 
envelopes to distribute for that social, the envelopes 
being intended for distribution beforehand, and bring- 
ing back on the social evening with contributions of 
money. Aunt Abby and Jessie^s mother had some 
money in their envelopes, ready for to-morrow evening. 
All three of these people believed in giving a tenth and 
more of their money, but there was so many causes 
worthy of being given to that sometimes there was 
hardly as much money as Jessie and her mother and 
aunt longed to be able to give. The money from the 
music scholars was not due yet ; Aunt Abby’s Do- 
without^’ box had been emptied by her for a foreign 
mission collection of the women^s circle several weeks 


64 


JESSIE S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


before this. Aunt Abby, however, had succeeded in sell- 
ing a rag-man part of a collection of rubbish from the 
wood-shed, the collection containing two potato-sacks, a 
piece of lead pipe, an old bird cage, a handleless old 
hatchet, some rags, and an old teakettle that was no 
longer used around the house. Twenty cents was the 
result of Aunt Abby’s bargain, and she put the money 
into her mission envelope, wishing the sum was much 
larger, but thankful to have anything to give. Mean- 
time, Jessie having recently paid a grocery bill and the 
last month^s pew rent, had no money left, and had 
been in a quandary as to where she was to obtain any- 
thing to put into her envelope. To-night, however, 
she was going to try a new idea. She held a little 
black satchel in her hand as she walked briskly onward. 
By-and-by she arrived at a house on a corner. She 
rang the bell, and a light-haired young woman with a 
pleasant face came to the door. 

Yes, Mr. Kulman is in now,^^ she said, in reply to 
Jessie’s question, adding : Come in.’’ 

Jessie followed the woman through the hall to the 
door of the front room. It was only half-past six, but 
one of the gas jets of the chandelier above the long, 
yellow, polished table, that took up almost the entire 
room, was lighted. The light, and the clean, yellow 
wood, made the room look very cheery. An intelli- 
gent-appearing young man stood near a desk, and the 
pigeon-holes above it held a good many papers. 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


65 


Rob/^ began the young woman, who was evidently 
his wife, ^Hhis is the young lady I told you about. 
She called here to-day, and I told her you would be 
home this evening. She has some stamps to sell — 
some Japanese stamps, I believe, aren’t they ? ” 

She turned to Jessie. 

I haven’t many Japanese,” answered Jessie, smil- 
ing. Only three of them. But I have some Sand- 
wich Island stamps, and a good many United States, 
and some English, all cancelled, of course. I saw the 
little stamp-booth your firm had at the fair ; and then, 
the other day, going by this house, I saw your sign 
again, ^Stamps Bought,’ so I went home and picked 
up what stamps we had, and I have brought them, 
now.” 

As she talked, Jessie opened her little satchel. She 
took out three little bunches of United States two-cent 
stamps that she and her mother had cut from letters 
around the house. 

There are three hundred stamps in those bunches,” 
Jessie said, putting the three on the long table. 

She drew out her other stamps. The stamp-dealer 
did not pay much attention to her miscellaneous collec- 
tion of three, and four, and five-cent United States 
stamps, and her large bunch of one-cent stamps. He 
was waiting to see the Sandwich Island stamps. There 
were a dozen or so of those. Jessie spread them out 
on the table, with the three Japanese stamps, and a 
E 


66 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


couple of English stamps, and one Canadian stamp. 
Jessie had a good many partially mutilated United 
States stamps in a separate package, but the stamp- 
dealer did not care for them. He did not care for two 
of the blue Sandwich Island stamps either, because 
there had been a little piece torn out of the king’s head 
on each of them. 

The stamp-dealer looked over Jessie’s spread-out 
collection, and he smiled as he touched the little packets 
of United States twos. 

United States stamps are not worth much,” he 
informed her. Only about a cent a hundred for 
those twos. Two cents a hundred for the ones. Of 
course any person here, who makes a collection of 
stamps, doesn’t care much for a good many of those 
of this country, — for the most common stamps, that is. 
Japanese stamps are worth about sixty cents a hundred. 
Those Sandwich Island stamps are the best you have.” 

He eyed the scattered stamps carefully. 

Take them altogether, they’re worth about fifteen 
cents,” concluded the stamp-dealer; United States 
stamps and all.” 

Jessie nodded. 

All right,” she agreed. 

The young man felt in his pocket, and then went 
away into another part of the house to get the right 
change. 

Thank you,” responded Jessie, when he paid her 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


67 


on his return. /^How is it about Chinese stamps? 
Are they valuable 

^^They would be better than anything you have 
there/^ declared the stamp-dealer, nodding toward 
dossiers collection on the table. Chinese stamps 
don^t come to this country very much. I think the 
folks in China buy the stamps of the government, and 
some way the government keeps the Chinese ones, and 
folks use American stamps on the letters sent here. I 
don^t understand about it, exactly. But Chinese 
stamps would be somewhat more valuable than 
Japanese ones.^^ 

I have just been elected corresponding secretary of 
a missionary society,^^ stated Jessie, as she arose to go, 
^^and I thought I should like to know about the 
stamps. I am going to save them when I get letters 
from the missionaries to whom I have to write. 

The stamp-dealer smiled. 

Was it a missionary who wrote to you from the 
Sandwich Islands asked the stamp-dealer’s wife, 
who was standing in the doorway, listening. 

^^It was a girl I know,” replied Jessie. ^^She 
went there to teach in a mission school for the native 
girls, and she used to write to me.” 

I suppose she could get a good many Sandwich 
Island stamps, couldn’t she?” questioned the dealer, 
evidently with an eye to business. 

I suppose she could have secured them if she had 


68 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

thought of it/’ returned Jessie. ^^But she isn’t in the 
Sandwich Islands now. How is it about Persian 
stamps?” 

They’re real good/’ nodded the dealer. Persian 
stamps are valuable enough^ so much so that I’ve heard 
that sometimes they are stolen going through the 
mails.” 

Oh ! ” exclaimed Jessie, surprised. 

She bade the dealer and his wife good-bye. It was 
still somewhat light as the girl walked rapidly home- 
ward. 

Now I can put fifteen cents into my envelope for 
the missionary social/’ thought Jessie. That is little 
enough, but it is better than nothing ! I do wish every- 
body in our church would bring fifteen cents ! We 
would have a good deal bigger collection than I am 
afraid we shall have.” 

She was so glad she had thought of selling the 
stamps ; so glad she had seen the sign. 

I wish,” Jessie said to herself, I could have seen 
that lot of letters that Mrs. Parrish said one of the 
foreign secretaries burnt when she resigned her office. 
There must have been a number of letters from Japan, 
and perhaps from China, among them, I should think. 
The letters were not needed any more, but that secre- 
tary would have saved the stamps from the letters, I 
am pretty sure, if she had known that she could have 
sold the stamps for the benefit of foreign missions. 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


69 


There is nothing like learning how to make every least 
bit of one’s resources tell. I think of that question so 
often, ^ What is that in thine hand ? ’ ” 

Jessie sighed a little. She was thinking how, on 
the last prayer-meeting eyening, she had met a girl, a 
member of the same church, and had offered her an 
envelope for the mission social. The girl refused the 
envelope. 

You are always busy at that, are you not ? ” com- 
mented the girl. 

At foreign mission work ? ” questioned Jessie. 

^^Yes,” replied her friend; believe more in 
home work.” 

^^It is all one work, home or foreign,” returned 
Jessie, patiently, for she had heard the old criticism 
often enough before. 

But she could not persuade the girl to take an 
envelope. 

We are both the Lord’s workers, I hope,” mused 
Jessie now as she walked home from the stamp-dealer’s. 

Only I wish some Christian people did not feel as 
they do about foreign missions. That was a dreadful 
accusation I read the other day, ^ The selfishness of the 
church, as a whole, is the only reason why a knowb 
edge of the gospel has not covered the earth to-day as 
the waters cover the sea.’ ” 

She remembered also another statement she had 
read : 


70 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


If every church-member made it his or her busi- 
ness to give the gospel to twenty persons annually in 
heathendom, five years would not have elapsed till 
every creature on earth would have heard the glad tid- 
ings of salvation.” 

And the solemn question of the Holy Writ came to 
her memory ; If thou forbear to deliver them that 
are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be 
slain ; if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not ; doth 
not He that pondereth the heart consider it ? ” And 
shall not He reward every man according to his 
works ? ” . 

To turn away from mission appeals, to take no 
interest ” in them, what a little thing it seemed to do, 
and yet what a solemnly responsible thing it was ! 

Jessie was thankful that she could do this little 
thing of selling stamps for that missionary envelope. 
She wished she could give much more. 

But blessed be stamp collectors ! ” she said that 
night, as she put the little money inside her envelope. 

If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t have this to 
give. Let me see. Wasn’t it a million dollars that I 
saw the Czar of Russia’s collection of stamps is 
worth? I am going to cut the stamp from every 
letter and paper wrapper that comes into our house 
hereafter. I wonder if I could help foreign missions 
in any other way that I haven’t thought of yet ? ” 

Jessie’s question was answered for her several weeks 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


71 


later, when she was in a certain church, attending a 
women’s missionary convention. The session was 
prolonged until evening, and the entertaining church 
gave supper to the ladies. Seated next one end of the 
long table, Jessie engaged in conversation with her 
right-hand neighbor. 

Yes, we have a foreign mission band for boys in 
our church,” replied the woman, in answer to a ques- 
tion Jessie had asked. My boy used to belong to 
it. He would go every time. He used to think so 
much of it. The week before he died he went to his 
mission band.” 

How long is it since he died ? ” asked Jessie, 
gently. 

She had never known the boy. She had never 
before heard of his death. Jessie only barely knew 
his mother, having seen her several times at mission- 
ary gatherings. But to-day as the two sat next each 
other, there was more opportunity than there had ever 
before been to speak together. 

He died last year,” replied the mother. He 
was coming home from school, and some boys were 
running after him, and he fell, striking his back on 
the curb. He came home, and he didn’t seem to be 
feeling badly, but next day he was taken sick, and he 
suffered terribly after that. There were nights and 
nights that I sat up with him. Oh, he suffered so ! 
The doctors said it was cerebro-spinal meningitis.” 


72 


JESSIE^S THKEE RESOLUTIONS. 


Jessie’s face grew very pitiful. 

It is so hard to see one we love very much suffer- 
ing like that/’ she said. To see one suffer, and not 
be able to help ! ” 

Oh,” rejoined the mother. Yes. When , he 
died, I was thankful. His dreadful pain was over. 
He was only eleven years old, but he was a Christian 
boy. I haven’t a doubt of that. And I was so 
thankful when it was all over — ^though I missed him 
so ! ” 

‘‘ Yes,” returned Jessie, simply. I know.” 

She did know. She had watched a life dearer to 
her than her own, go out through slow days of distress. 
She knew what it was to thank God with all her 
crushed heart that that one’s life was ended, since there 
was also an end of the pain. 

The mother’s low voice went on, speaking to Jessie ; 

After my boy died, I looked over his things, and 
he had a great many cards — ^picture cards, advertise- 
ment cards, and so on. A good many of them were 
very pretty. There were three hundred or more of 
them, and I took them — my boy was so interested in 
foreign missions — and I sent them to one of the lady 
missionaries in China, Miss Scott, at Swatow. I 
heard that the missionaries could use such cards by 
writing a verse in Chinese from the Bible on each 
card, you know, and then giving the cards away. 
And I wrote Miss Scott all about my boy, and I 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


73 


had such a beautiful letter from her, answering 
me.^^ 

You don’t know how much good those cards may 
have done in China, before now/’ suggested Jessie. 

Perhaps they have been the means of the conversion 
of somebody, already.” 

I thought my boy would like to have me send the 
cards there,” answered the mother. Some few of his 
cards I couldn’t bear to part with. I have those 
yet.” 

Jessie did not reply. But the next day after that 
of the mission meeting, she hunted through the house 
at home, and found some cards. She put them into a 
large square box on a shelf. 

I want all the picture cards that come into the 
house hereafter,” she announced. 

Are picture cards missionary resources too ? ” 
her mother asked. 

Yes,” answered Jessie; never thought before 
about saving them.” 

The missionaries can use pictures in Burma and 
Africa too,” murmured Aunt Abby from the lounge, 
where she was confined just now by rheumatism. If 
you will hand me the file of the ^Helping Hand,’ 
Jessie, I mil show you a place I was reading the other 
day.” 

Jessie did as requested, and Aunt Abby pointed to 
something which Jessie read aloud as follows : Miss 


74 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

Bunn, of Zigon, Burma, asks, ^ Don’t you know of 
some circle or band that will send me a box for my 
school ? Even patchwork and advertising cards will 
be thankfully received.’ ” 

And again ; Miss Howard writes June 11, from 
Lukungu, Congo, ^ One thing I want very much for 
my Sunday-school, which numbered ninety-three last 
Sunday. Will you not ask for Scripture rolls for 
them ? They are so fond of pictures. Those used by 
the home schools last year will do. They would help 
so much in explaining and fixing Bible stories in their 
minds. Please do not forget to mention ihis,^ ” 

In another Helping Hand,” Jessie found mention 
of Miss Scott, of Swatow, China, and the use of 
picture cards : In October I took my first trip 

alone. I went to our chapel at Tang-Ou, one of our 
oldest stations. The two weeks spent there were of 
great help to me in learning to talk the Chinese lan- 
guage. My plan was to have a daily class for women 
and children in the morning, and to go out to do the 
housework in the afternoon. Each morning four or 
five women came to read and write ; a number of chil- 
dren were glad to learn the Scripture verses, in order 
to get one of the pretty picture cards, on which the 
passage was written in Chinese characters.” 

So the Chinese children learn the verses on the 
cards,” commented Jessie. That’s a good idea. 
Let us save all the cards that we can.” 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


75 


You will know all your missionary resources before 
long, won’t you ? ” inquired Aunt Abby, feebly. 

Her Kttle pile of slips on which she had carefully 
copied in print letters the Portuguese words of John 
3 : 16, lay on the sewing machine, ready for Jessie to 
distribute when she could. Poor Aunt Abby ! She 
did all she was able to do, in her age and feebleness. 
She had been very glad to help Jessie about the slips, 
and would do so again. 

‘‘1 don’t know,” Jessie said, as she answered her 
aunt’s question ; it doesn’t seem as if there was any end 
to learning how to do good.” 

And to herself she added reverently the old question : 

What is that in thine hand ? ” 

What unthought-of resources did she yet have that 
she might learn to draw from to furnish help for the 
Lord’s work, whether at home or abroad ? 

Jessie had a hint awhile after this, of the way in which 
a boy might earn a nickel or two for mission purposes, 
providing his family was in the habit of eating a good 
deal of meat. In a large family, a boy might find the 
plan practicable, although it was a very homely one, 
indeed. 

One forenoon, when Jessie was out sweeping the 
front steps, she saw, half a block below her, a rag-bag 
and bottle wagon. A little colored boy came running 
toward the wagon, which had stopped. 

Say ! ” called the boy ; do you buy bones ? ” 


76 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


Yes/’ answered the driver of the wagon, himself a 
colored man. 

IVe got maybe half a sack down home/’ called the 
boy. It’s right down the hill.” 

Go get them/’ commanded the colored man, climb- 
ing out of his wagon ; I’ll be here when you come 
back.” 

The little fellow darted away down the hill to- 
ward the next block. By the time that the rag-man 
had gone to a house and returned to the sidewalk, he 
was coming up the road, carrying a good-sized sack 
about a third or more full of bones. The boy held a 
short consultation with the driver of the wagon. Jessie 
heard the man oifer the boy a nickel for the bones. 
But the boy refused to accept so little for his wares. 
He evidently thought he could make a better bargain 
than that with somebody else. So he shouldered his 
sack of bones again, and trudged back down the 
hill. 

“ I did not know that rag-men buy bones,” thought 
Jessie, watching the cart drive away. That would be 
a way of earning another nickel for missions, wouldn’t 
it ? I could not do it, however, because we don’t have 
much meat, and so don’t have many bones. It wouldn’t 
be a very poetical way of earning money for missions, 
to be sure, but it is a way ! If a little boy can sell 
half a sack of bones for five cents, why might not 
some other boy do the same, and give the nickel for 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


77 


foreign missions ? And why might not that five-cent 
piece do a great deal of good ? 

But how about the people who would keep their 
money, and give for the Lord^s work only driblets. 
Was that honest and right? That was not what 
Jessie intended to do at all. She meant to give 
this foreign mission cause all she could honestly, self- 
denyingly spare from her regular earnings. What she 
was trying to do was to discover if there were not 
other resources yet unthought of, whence she might 
draw a little more money or help of some kind to give 
toward the work of christianizing the world. 

Surely such an object is worth the exercising of our 
observation and ingenuity. Who can estimate how 
much the work of missions, at home and abroad, 
might be helped forward, if every Christian would 
begin to realize his or her responsibility for ‘‘ scraps,^^ 
for resources so insignificant that at first they are un- 
thought of, and perhaps not discovered save by a con- 
secrated ingenuity ? Alas, that we should have to read 
such a statement as this : ^^Nine-tenths of all contribu- 
tions to foreign missions are given by one-tenth of the 
church-membership, while only half of the mem- 
bership GIVE ANYTHING.^^ 

Owe we then nothing to our Lord ? No sacrifice, 
no plannings, no ingenuity, that we may give toward 
the coming of his kingdom ? And, lo, the heathen 
cry for the bread of life ! See down in Mexico a 


78 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


woman pawning a flat-iron that she may buy the Book ! 
Hear another Mexican woman saying : We will eat but 
once to-day and save the money for it/’ and she kisses 
the Book that shall tell her of the bread of life. See 
over in France a woman buying a New Testament, and 
then so fearful that the priest might discover the book 
in her house, that she goes to a friend and leaves the 
book there, paying the friend a small sum to be allowed 
to go each day and read in her own book. See in 
Alaska, a missionary going to visit a sick, old man, 
and finding a Bible tied at the top of a stick three feet 
long, placed near the bed on which the old man lies. 
And, when asked the reason for this arrangement, 
hear the old man’s answer : ‘‘ I cannot read, but I know 
that the word of my Lord is there ; and I look to 
heaven and say : ‘ Father, that is your Book. There 
is nobody to teach me to read. Very good ; you help 
me.’ Then my heart grows stronger, and the bad goes 
away.” 

And others wait who never saw this word. How 
can we sit at home and not care ? Hear Dr. Partridge : 

^ We are doing too much in the way of giving the 
gospel to the heathen.’ This is the sound which some- 
times comes to our ears. 

Well, how much are we doing ? If I may have 
the estimated value of the tobacco raised in the Con- 
necticut and Housatonic valleys this year ( 1891 ), — I 
do not refer to such tobacco-raising States as Virginia 


IDEAS FOR WORK. 


79 


and North Carolina, but to staid Massachusetts, and 
steady Connecticut and Vermont, — if I may have the 
estimated value of this yearns crop of tobacco raised 
in these States, I will pay all the expenses of the Mis- 
sionary Union, on its present scale of expenditure, both 
at home and in all its foreign fields, for six years, leav- 
ing the Union to use all the money which comes into 
its treasury to enlarge its own work. Are we doing 
too much in the way of sending the blessed gospel to 
those who never heard that eternal salvation was pos- 
sible 

Almost daily did Jessie meet with some information 
tending to deepen and strengthen her interest in mis- 
sions, home and foreign. As Jessie read and learned 
she realized more fully what the scope of missions 
might be, and most earnestly did she pray for ability 
to work and teach the people, and show them by her 
life something of what a trust in the Saviour might 
mean to them. 

Often as her desire to help multiplied as she saw the 
need did she remember the lines : 


Do thy duty, that is hest, 
Leave unto the Lord the rest. 


CHAPTEE VI. 


Jessie’s* effoet. 

“The prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ implies consecrated effort 
from him who prays.” 

^^"PORQUE de tal maneira amou Deos ao mundo, 

-L que deo a seu Filho imigenito ; para qiie todo 
aquelle que nelle n^o perega, mas tenha a vida 
eterna/^ 

Over and over Jessie wrote from John 3 : 16, in 
Portuguese print-letters those words. Last Sunday 
she had distributed many of the slips, pinning one in a 
knot-hole that opened into a back-yard ; giving two or 
three slips to children who readily agreed to hand the 
papers to their fathers — for Jessie was aware that more 
Portuguese men than women can read. She had 
pinned one slip in a gateway, and left another paper 
fastened on a post next a little Portuguese house facing 
on an alley. 

It is about time for me to go,^^ she warned her- 
self, now glancing at the clock. 

She made ready, and hastened down town toward 
the temperance rooms where a noon-day prayer meet- 
ing was held. Jessie had agreed to go daily for a 
fortnight, and play the piano for the singing. 

80 


Jessie’s effort. 


81 


About half a dozen men had arrived, and were sit- 
ting on the chairs placed for the audience. One man 
in plasterer’s or bricklayer’s clothes, came and looked 
in. Some one inside beckoned him to enter, but the 
man retreated. Sometimes there would be only two or 
three Christians in the audience at the noon prayer 
meeting. Sometimes there would be no unconverted per- 
sons present, but often there would be from one or two 
to three or four, or half a dozen who looked as if they 
needed the gospel, whether they professed to want it 
or not. Some, doubtless, were attracted more by the 
singing than by anything else. 

^^Let us sing number twenty-six,” suggested the 
leader. 

Jessie turned to the number and played it. After 
the singing of several hymns, the leader began to read 
from the Bible, and Jessie, turning from the piano, 
noticed an old man sitting in the little audiance. The 
old man had a swarthy complexion, white beard, and 
dark eyes. Jessie could not tell exactly of what 
nationality he was. She did not know but possibly 
he might be an old Portuguese or Italian gentleman. 
Perhaps he was from South America. She was a little 
surprised to see him rise in the early part of the meeting 
and hear him talk as if he was a Christian. He spoke 
English quite well. He told of a friend he had met a 
few days before. 

I went into a store on an errand,” the old man 
F 


82 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

stated, and there was a young .man there who sat and 
looked at me. He said, ^ I believe I know you ! ’ and 
I said, ‘ I believe I know your face too ! ’ And he 
said, ^Wasn’t you an old engineer?’ And I said, 
^ Yes,’ and he said, ^ Didn’t you live at San Antonio ? ’ 
And I said ^ Yes,’ and he said, ^ Wait a minute ! ’ 
And he ran around the corner, and brought back an 
old man. Oh ! he was my friend in old times, and he 
was so glad to see me ! And he talked, and he got to 
telling about the time we were boys together, and went 
to the same priest, and were confirmed in the same 
church. And I said to him, ^ Don’t talk to me about 
priests and cathedrals any more ! I’ve found the real 
Catholic church, the holy Catholic church, and the real 
gospel ! No more priests for me ! ’ And he and I 
talked for as much as an hour, and the Lord helped 
me show that man texts in the Bible, and I talked to 
him, and he said to me, ^ You are the only man in the 
United States that has showed me those texts.’ And 
I think the Lord led me into that shop. That old 
man, I suppose, is about seventy. And we don’t 
know how much good we can do, if we talk about 
Jesus. I tell you, Roman Catholics can be reached ! 
I’ve been a Catholic, and I know how to talk to them ! 
Never tell them you’re not a Catholic. Tell them you 
belong to the hol^ Catholic church, and then they get to 
talking about their religion, and you have them ! You 
can talk, and they can’t answer you.” 


Jessie’s effort. 


83 


Jessie knew what he meant. Catholic ” was 
used in the sense of universal.” That was the 
sense originally, but the Roman Catholics have so 
claimed the epithet that Jessie felt as if she should 
hardly want to use the old man’s method of saying 
that he belonged to the holy Catholic ” church. She 
felt almost as it would be deceiving a little. Yet per- 
haps he understood better than she did how to approach 
the members of the church of Rome. Jessie felt glad 
that the man seemed to have so much faith in the pos- 
sibility of Catholics being reached by the gospel. She 
wondered who it was that first spoke of the real gospel 
to this man who was now so sure that Catholics could 
be reached. Somebody must have been the person to 
lead this man to the truth. Did that somebody Imow 
now that this man had become an earnest Christian? 
How many Christian workers knew what their work 
amounted to ? 

I am going to work harder for the Portuguese 
than I ever have before,” resolved Jessie, cheered by 
the man’s faith that Roman Catholics can be reached. 

After music lessons were over the next day, she 
went out among the Portuguese. She had some friends 
among them. There was one bright-eyed old woman, 
whom Jessie’s father, before his death, had helped to 
retain her little property — a tiny house of two 
rooms, reached by a path running through a garden. 
Mrs. Costa never had forgotten the kindness. She 


84 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


was always ready to bob a courtesy whenever Jessie or 
her mother appeared, and sometimes spoke in her 
broken English of the favor done her in years past. 
Mrs. Costa had the grateful, kindly heart such as so 
many Portuguese possess. 

I have the roof over my head,” she would say to 
Jessie ; it was your papa that did it. Poor man ! 
He dead ! If not for him, I don’t know I have a roof 
over my head now. Your papa help me ! I hope 
God give him a good chair in heaven, because I have a 
roof over my head ! ” 

Jessie’s mother had tried to explain to Mrs. Costa 
that it was not by his own good works that Jessie’s 
father had tried to gain heaven. But it was impos- 
sible to make the bright-eyed old Portuguese woman un- 
derstand. She was a Roman Catholic. Jessie, knowing 
only one Protestant Portuguese, an intelligent young 
fellow, a Baptist, full of earnest pity for his people, 
working for them as far as he was able, had spoken to 
him of Mrs. Costa, and had asked him to go to see 
her. He had done so, and he reported to Jessie after- 
ward : 

When I first went there she thought I was study- 
ing to be a Catholic priest, and she commenced to talk 
against the priests, and say what bad men they were, 
and she didn’t believe in them. Then, when she 
understood that I was a Protestant, she wanted to 
know who sent me to her, and I couldn’t remember 


Jessie’s effort. 


85 


yoi^r name, so I couldn’t tell her. And she said to 
me that I would lose my soul if I became a Protestant. 
I would never go to heaven if I did not pray to the 
saints.” 

Jessie had made another effort to reach Mrs. Costa 
by carrying her a Portuguese New Testament, not tell- 
ing the woman what the book was. Jessie inwardly 
feared afterward in meeting Mrs. Costa, lest the 
old Portuguese woman should be angry, having dis- 
covered the character of the book. But Mrs. Costa 
was just as friendly as usual. She spoke of the book. 
She could not read Portuguese herself, being ignor- 
ant, — and the ignorance of reading among Portuguese 
women is a hindrance in working for their enlighten- 
ment — but her daughter could read. 

My daughter look at the book, and read, and she 
say, ^ Why, mamma, this a kind of Bible ! ’ ” 

Yes,” acknowledged Jessie. 

But alas ! the daughter was a married woman, and 
lived some blocks away from her mother, and Jessie 
did not know in which house the Portuguese New 
Testament now was, or whether the priest had found 
and appropriated it. 

^^They are so good-hearted, many of these Portu- 
guese,” Jessie thought, as she walked on. So good- 
hearted, and honest, and hard-working.” 

She remembered going over the mountains with her 
father once, to see a Portuguese patient whom he was 


86 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


attending, and the wife of the sick man came out to 
the buggy, bringing Jessie a queer, gay bouquet of 
yellow marigolds and red roses. It seemed all the 
more sad that a people so kind-hearted should be so 
completely in the power of the priests. ^ 

Mrs. Clift told me that one of those two Portu- 
guese families living below her is quite clean ; and the 
other day, when Mrs. Clift’s cow ran away, and she 
hunted and couldn’t find the cow, that old Portuguese 
man started out, and he never stopped until he found 
the cow and brought her home,” said Jessie to herself. 

He wasn’t under any obligations to do it. It was 
just his neighborly kindness.” 

A new Portuguese family, of whom Jessie had 
heard, came from Honolulu to California. Others of 
the Portuguese of this district came from the Azores. 
Halloo ! ” cried a voice. 

Jessie turned quickly. Near her was a gate a little 
farther in from the sidewalk than the fence, and Jessie 
had been passing the place without seeing the bright 
little Portuguese boy, of perhaps eight years, who was 
sitting in the recess next the gate. 

Jessie stopped to ask the child about going to 
Sunday-school. She had forgotten that he was one 
whom she had previously invited, she had invited 
so many. But she must have spoken to this boy 
before, for he answered now that he had been intend- 
ing to go, but My father wouldn’t let me.” 


Jessie’s effort. 


87 


There was something particularly winning about 
this little fellow. Jessie gave him a Sunday-school 
paper as she left him. 

In the next little house lived another Portuguese 
family. Going into the yard and up the path, Jessie 
saw a woman sitting on the steps of the porch. She 
was cleaning a big fish. Her back was toward Jessie. 

Good afternoon/’ said the girl. 

The Portuguese woman turned, showing a pleasant, 
smiling face. Three children appeared from the open 
door that led into the little kitchen. At one side were 
the rows of cabbages, among which Jessie had seen the 
father working on Sundays as sBe passed the house. 

The oldest of the three children, a girl, who had 
evidently, from the red stain on her tawny hand been 
engaged in some such sanguinary work as the mother, 
acted as interpreter, although the mother was able to 
speak some English. The children in these Portu- 
guese households are usually better linguists than their 
parents. This Portuguese mother was very pleasant ; 
but she excused her children from accepting Jessie’s 
invitation to Sunday-school by calling the girl’s atten- 
tion to the children’s shoes, which indeed were old, 
but not unavailable. 

Never mind the shoes,” urged Jessie. No 
matter. Let the children come.” 

But the mother, although pleasant, would make no 
promise. 


88 


Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 


In the other house, at the gate of which the small 
boy had sat, Jessie found a young Portuguese girl. 
Jessie had noticed that if she was treated coldly by 
any Portuguese, it was usually by some of the young 
women, and not by the mothers or the children. The 
mother’s faces were more kindly, or more diplomatic 
perhaps, sometimes. At this house Jessie was met at 
the door by a Portuguese young woman, whose mother, 
with a red handkerchief tied about her head, came and 
looked over her daughter’s shoulder. But the daughter 
was the spokesman, and her face was coldly forbidding 
as she listened to Jessie’s errand. 

We’re Catholics,’^ replied the Portuguese girl, 
haughtily, as if no Sunday-school could be a Catholic 
institution. We go to our own church.” 

Jessie turned away. At least the Catholics are not 
ashamed to speak of their religion. If the little boy 
who had accosted Jessie at the gate of this yard had 
that young Portuguese woman for his sister, Jessie did 
not wonder at his staying away from Sunday-school. 
The boy had spoken of his father’s refusal to give per- 
mission to attend, but Jessie presumed that the daughter 
was in accord with her father. 

I wonder how she knew I was not a Roman Catho- 
lic?” Jessie questioned herself. ^^She seemed to 
suspect immediately.” 

Jessie turned and walked over the hills to a small 
section known as Portugee-town,” the other neigh- 


Jessie’s effort. 


89 


bors having given it that name because so many of 
that nationality lived on two sides of the three or four 
blocks that comprised the district. As Jessie went 
hunting for Sunday-school scholars in ‘‘ Portugee- 
town/’ and as she picked her way from one house to 
another, shunning the open sewer- water that ran into 
the street and made the green grass a snare to be 
avoided, she suspected that the Catholic priest had 
seen this Portuguese woman who was baking bread, 
and this other Portuguese woman who was washing in 
a yard, her two children with her; another woman, 
ornamented with earrings, and accompanied with her 
two children, being also in the yard. But no Portu- 
guese mother openly declared to Jessie that the priest 
had spoken of the Sunday-school as a thing of evil. 
The mothers never mentioned the priest, but Jessie felt 
instinctively that his presence had been before her. A 
number of Portuguese scholars used to come to Sunday- 
school several years before this, the other teachers had 
told Jessie, but the priest had discovered and forbidden 
it. Evidently the Portuguese had not forgotten, or 
else had been re-warned. 

wonder,” Jessie asked herself, ^4f this is the 
way that missionaries in foreign lands feel when going 
around among the heathen ? I don’t seem to be very 
successful here. I wonder if I would be any more so 
in a heathen country ? Suppose I was in a Roman 
Catholic country, like Ecuador, for instance ? ” 


90 


Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 


With this thought her energy increased, and she 
plodded on from house to house. She could not go to 
Ecuador, but occasionally she could snatch a short time 
from her busy life of music teaching and housekeep- 
ing, and go to Portugee-town ” and scattered Portu- 
guese houses, although she did not see many encourag- 
ing results of her going. The more she learned of 
these Portuguese, the more helpless she felt. And yet, 
did it matter about her own strength ? Could not God 
use the weak things of this world? Oh, she would 
not give up these Portuguese ! She would pray and 
work for them. The poor, ignorant people. A pity 
for certain of them took possession of her heart as she 
heard of new families, and thought how little she could 
do for them. She wished she could earn or save 
enough to buy New Testaments for all these families. 
She had given to some, and yet she could see that it 
might be merely throwing the books away to give them 
to the most prejudiced families. With them the New 
Testament would probably be destroyed. Yet she 
longed to help this people. 

That evening, after the supper dishes were washed, 
Jessie stood at a western window, reading by the sun- 
set light. The little book she held contained a very 
short chapter on the Reformation in Spain and Por- 
tugal. Jessie was wishing to find out especially how 
the Reformation had succeeded among the Portuguese. 
She read some paragraphs as follows : 


Jessie’s effort. 


91 


The writings of Erasmus, and even of Luther, 
found their way south of the Pyrenees, and were read 
in secret by many persons of the more cultivated classes. 
A taste for them had been awakened by the Mysticism, 
which was a popular aspiration for purer morals and 
ecclesiastical government. The officers of Charles V., 
and other members of his military court, came in con- 
tact with Luther’s doctrines while in the German wars, 
and when they returned they brought this new attach- 
ment with them. As representatives of this class, may 
be mentioned Alphonso de Vives and Ponce de la 
Fuente. Translations of the Bible into Spanish were 
a powerful auxiliary. Franz Enzinas, of Burgos, 
issued the first Spanish Bible in Antwerp, in 1543. 
Knowing that his emperor, Charles V., was a patron 
of learning — some kinds — he had the simplicity to 
dedicate his version to that ruler. His reward was a 
confinement of fourteen months in a Brussels prison, 
on the ground that he had printed in capital letters the 
passage, ^ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. 
By what law ? of works ? Nay ; but by the law of 
faith” (Romans 3 : 27). 

Entire cloisters, such as San Isidore del Campo, 
threw off the authority of Rome, and adopted the 
Protestant doctrines. Valladolid, Seville, and Medina 
del Campo became centers for the distribution of Pro- 
testant writings. Rodrigo de Varelo, Juan ^gidius, 
Augustine Cazalla, and Diaz were representatives of 


92 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


the new measures. Small societies were organized in 
many places, and public worship was held. 

Just as soon as the Spanish people expressed 
sympathy with the Reformation in an organized and 
public way, violent means were employed to arrest the 
work. The Inquisition was ordered from Rome. 
Fernando Valdez was appointed Grand Inquisitor. 
He was the very man for the work, having an in- 
domitable will, blind zeal for Roman Catholicism, and 
intense hostility toward the cause of reform. Autos da 
(acts of faith), or public burnings of heretics, were 
kindled in twelve cities. All spectators of these scenes 
were granted plenary indulgences.” 

Jessie gave a little cry of horror. 

To have one’s sins forgiven by the priest, because 
one had gone to see a Christian burned ! ” she ex- 
claimed. I never knew before that the Church of 
Rome ever went so far as that ! ” 

^^The first prominent martyr,” she read on ^G^^as 
Carlos de Seso. Then came Domingo de Roxas, Garcia 
de Arrias, Montanos, and Hernandez, as leaders of a 
great host of victims. Even women were not spared, 
whether from the nobility or lower classes. Maria 
Gomez, Maria de Boborguez, and Eleonora de Cisneros 
were noble representatives of their sex in joyful readi- 
ness to endure martyrdom for their faith. Protestant 
Englishmen, temporarily in Spain, were likewise exe- 
cuted when known to be in sympathy with Protestantism. 


JESSIE'S EFFORT. 


93 


Portugal was much less affected by the reformatory 
movement than Spain. Still, there were indications 
enough to excite alarm. Diego de Silva was appointed 
Grand Inquisitor. He performed his work thoroughly, 
and soon all Protestant traces were destroyed.'^ 

Jessie closed the little book. 

^ He performed his work thoroughly, and all Pro- 
testant traces were destroyed,' " she repeated, gravely. 

That is what ails the Portuguese, f The Reformation 
never had much sway in Portugal. And the Portu- 
guese people ever since have walked in the way Rome 
commanded. No wonder it is hard for a Protestant 
to reach such people ! Supposing all Protestant traces 
had been destroyed in England at the time of the Re- 
formation, where would I be to-day? Am I not 
bound to work for these Portuguese?"!" 

The next Saturday night Jessie went to church as 
usual, to play the organ for choir rehearsal. 

^^The Portuguese people around here have been 
having a great time," said one member of the choir. 

You know there are a number of Portuguese living 
not far from us. Last night they had a torchlight 
procession and a band, and to-day a wagon and a band 
came around, and went to the Portuguese houses. 
The men in the wagon had bread and small roasts of 
veal, and bottles of wine, and these were left at the 
houses. All the things were checked off in a book, 
and I suppose the Portuguese had to pay for the eat- 


94 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


ables. Probably the money goes into the coffers of 
the church.^^ 

What is this feast ? asked one of the altos. 

This is what the Portuguese call the ^ Feast of 
the Holy Ghost/ replied a tenor. 

Oh, yes ! exclaimed Jessie ; I saw a notice of 
that in our evening paper the other day. And last 
Sunday, here on the avenue, I saw a Portuguese man 
with a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, who had no hat, 
I think. She wore a long white veil that covered her 
head, and fell down around her. I don’t know 
whether she had anything to do with celebrating this 
feast, though.” 

Maybe she had been confirmed,” suggested an 

alto. 

Perhaps so,” returned Jessie. I never liappened 
to see any Portuguese girl dressed that way before, 
though.” 

The next day, however, as she was going to Sunday- 
school, Jessie saw a Portuguese man and two little 
girls. The children were dressed in white, with red 
sashes, and wore no hats, but had what looked to 
Jessie like some white, artificial flowers arranged in a 
little triangle on top of each child’s head. 

Jessie learned more of this feast, the name of which 
sounds irreverent to our Protestant ears — ^the Feast 
of the Holy Ghost ” — from one of her Sunday-school 
scholars, a boy of nine. He lived opposite a row of 


Jessie’s effoet. 


95 


Portuguese houses, and so had quite a good opportu- 
nity of observing what went on there. Jessie called at 
her scholar’s door one evening, and when she went 
away, the boy, who was going on an errand in the 
same direction, walked with her over the hills toward 
a business street. Seth was a very observant, truthful 
little fellow, as Jessie knew, and he began to tell her 
about what he had seen the Portuguese doing. 

They had a wagon,” stated Seth, and bread and 
chunks of veal. And they had a band, you know, 
and the bread had roses stuck on top of it, and the 
wagon went around to the Portuguese houses, and 
made the folks buy the chunks of veal. And there 
was a brass thing plated with silver. They called it 
the ^ Holy Ghost,’ and they carried it into the houses, 
and everybody in the houses had to take otf their hats 
to it.” 

What did it look like ? ” questioned Jessie. 

Like a bottle,” answered Seth, after an instant’s 
hesitation, as if he could hardly think of a simile that 
exactly expressed the shape of the image he had seen. 

Jessie came to the corner where she must bid her 
scholar good-bye. She walked on alone, thinking of 
the Portuguese and their feast. 

I read in a paper the other day,” said she to her- 
self, a letter from a man who was traveling out here 
in California, and he saw at San Jose a Chinese fu- 
neral, a pig that was to be killed being carried in a 


96 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


wagon, and Chinese money — mock-money, probably — 
being thrown out of the wagon. The man wrote that 
he thought it a disgusting exhibition of heathenism 
that ought not to be allowed in this country. But I 
don’t know what he would think of a feast that seems 
as blaspliemous as this Portuguese one.” 

]lt seemed strange that in an enlightened land like 
the United States such a heathen practice as the Feast 
of the Holy Ghost ” should continue year after year. 

It is shocking ! ” thought Jessie. It is a feast 
that might belong to ignorant Mexico or Portugal, or 
to some dark South American country. But here! 
the Bible in one house, people worshiping the real 
God, and just across the street, in another house, the 
Bible forbidden, and an image carried in and treated 
with reverence under the name of the Holy Ghost. It 
is dreadful ! And what can I do ? ”7 

She had felt the need of Ecuador and India, and 
wept for them, but here was heathenism at her own 
door ! Here were bright-eyed, attractive even when 
dirty, children, beautiful with the dark comeliness of 
the south, ready many of them to receive religious im- 
pressions, and yet those impressions must be given by 
the church of Rome. The children were held away 
from Protestant influence. Their parents believed in 
Maree ” and the saints, and all Rome’s heathen lies. 

O Church of Rome ! ” groaned Jessie, how 
strong you are ! What can I do against you ? ” 


Jessie’s effoet. 


97 


It seemed so dreadful, this subtile invisible some- 
thing that kept these poor, good-hearted people, almost 
heathen, in a Christian land. Jessie remembered that 
when she was going to church the other Sunday, she 
had passed through a little alley, and two Portuguese 
women had been at the open window of one of the lit- 
tle houses. The two women, perhaps mother and 
daughter had looked at Jessie, and the girl, seeing the 
mother’s not unfriendly face, had so wished she had 
been able to bring a little of the gospel to that home 
that Sunday evening. But the tracts Jessie had had 
with her were in English, and even Portuguese proba- 
bly could not have been read by the mother. And so 
Jessie had been compelled to pass on, doing those poor 
souls no good, save by a silent prayer. Should she 
ever be able to do anything for this people ? 

The next week Jessie made a trip to a somewhat 
distant part of the town. The only Portuguese Catho- 
lic church of the district was there, not all of its 
attendants being Portuguese, but the majority belong- 
ing to that nationality. The church bore St. Joseph’s 
name upon the archw'ay of the entrance. 

I will go in,” mentally resolved Jessie ; I am 
going to see just what those Portuguese children are 
taught to believe is right.” 

She went softly into the vestibule, past the font of 
holy water, entered the main body of the church, and 
sat in one of the uncushioned wooden pews. There 


98 Jessie’s theee eesolutions. 

were only two other persons in the church. One was 
an old man, going the round of the pictures of the 
stations of the cross on the wall, kneeling before each 
picture, having previously dropped a handkerchief on 
the floor that he might kneel on something that would 
not soil his garments. The old man held a rosary of 
large black beads. A woman, also, was at her devo- 
tions near the railing before the main altar. The 
church was quite plain, presenting the general appear- 
ance of a Catholic church, with nothing distinctively 
Portuguese at first glance. 

In the pew in which Jessie sat lay a small green- 
covered book. Jessie picked it up and found that it 
was in English. The title was The Pocket Key of 
Heaven.” Under the Litany of the Blessed Virgin,” 
Jessie read the following ; We fly to thy patronage, 
O holy Mother of God ! despise not our petitions in 
our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O ever 
glorious and blessed Virgin ! ” 

The old man moved to another picture, and Jessie 
read under Ad Vesperas, At Even Song, ^^Hail, O 
Queen ! O mother of mercy ; hail, our life, our com- 
fort and our hope ! We, the banished children of Eve, 
cry out unto thee ! ” 

A long list of saints, Peter, Paul, Matthew, Law- 
rence, Stephen, Vincent, Cosmas, Nicholas, were peti- 
tioned to pray for us.” 

Oh ! ” sighed Jessie to herself, no wonder that 


JESSIE'S EFEOET. 


99 


Portuguese man, Mr. Pereira, suspected that I did not 
teach ^ Maree ^ worship ! The children must have re- 
ported to him that our church is very different from 
this. Poor little children ! " 

Jessie did not like to go up near the altars. She did 
not know but the man and the woman might think a 
Protestant intruder had no right to do so, and the 
worshipers, of course, would know Jessie to be a 
Protestant because she would not bow to the main 
altar. 

That woman would notice it if the man did not,'^ 
thought Jessie. She will know I am a stray heretic, 
but I would like to go up there and see if there is any- 
thing distinctively Portuguese, 

There were cards on the various pews. Evidently 
most of them were rented. Sometimes a renter took 
the whole of a pew. In that case, the fact was stated 
after his name, as, for instance, Manuel Jeronimo o 
banco todo,^' (all the bench, or seat). 

The woman worshiper had dipped her fingers in the 
holy-water font near the door, and crossed her forehead 
devoutly. Two women entered the building, but they 
were evidently sight-seers and not Catholics, for they 
did not approach the holy-water font, or bow toward 
the altar. As the visitors walked quietly up near the 
altars, Jessie ventured to go there too. In a gilt 
frame, near the figures of a tonsured priest and a child, 
Jessie read the following : 


100 


JESSIE^S THEEE EESOLUTIONS. 


Pede-se 
Um Padre 
nosso e uma 
Ave Maria a 
Santo Antonio 
Pela Converao 
dos Peccadoees/^ 

By dint of the Latin and Spanish that she knew, 
Jessie translated the Portuguese words as follows : 
^^Pray an ^Our Father^ and an ^Ave Maria ^ to St. 
Anthony for the conversion of two sinners.^^ 

Shall I not rather pray to the real Father for the 
conversion of all these Portuguese ? thought Jessie, 
as she silently passed back down the aisle. ‘‘ What 
else can I do for these who are ‘ omitted in the distribu- 
tion of the bread ^ 

Jessie would never forget her first Portuguese scholar. 
She had come to Jessie’s class of girls, several years 
before this, when Jessie did not know how difficult it 
was to obtain Portuguese Sunday-school scholars. 
None of the girls whom Jessie taught had objected to 
the presence of the Portuguese girl among them, and 
Jessie, while wondering that Mary Costa came, yet 
treated the scholar well, thinking that perhaps Mrs. 
Costa, who was poor, might have an idea that the 
church would help her, if the daughter came to Sun- 
day-school. Mary Costa came repeatedly. Jessie tried 


Jessie’s effoet. 


101 


to teach her somewhat^ but the young teacher afterward 
wished that she had made a much more special effort 
for that Portuguese who had been placed under her’ 
care. 

After a time Mary Costa disappeared. Quite a while 
passed, and then Jessie heard that the Portuguese girl 
was dead. 

When she remembered sometimes the different schol- 
ars she had taught, Jessie would recall the memory of 
Mary Costa with a regret that bordered on unavailing 
tears. Why had not a Portuguese New Testament 
been obtained for the girl ? Jessie had tried to teach 
the poor, ignorant creature, but the teacher sometimes 
wondered if she had done all she could. In the future 
world, would that Portugese girl sometime say, You 
were my Sunday-school teacher, and you did not do 
what might have been done for my soul ” ? 

It was a solemn question. Jessie thought of it that 
afternoon, as she walked away from St. Joseph’s 
Church. The memory of Mary Costa filled the girl’s 
soul with a sense of her responsibility, and Jessie asked 
herself again, What can I do for this people ? How 
can the Portuguese be reached ? ” 

Pede-se Urn Padre nosso e uma Ave Maria a Santo 
Antonio Pela Converao dos PeecadoresP 

The Portuguese believed in conversion, then ; in a 
conversion of some kind. Oh, that it might be real ! 
My poor people ! ” was what the one converted 


102 


Jessie’s theee eesolutions. 


Baptist Portuguese man, whom Jessie knew, was wont 
to say of his nation, as he wept over the spiritual con- 
dition of that people. 

He knew, as one of another nation could not, the 
bigotry and superstition that bind the Portuguese like 
chains about their souls. His heart cried out for their 
salvation, remembering from what bondage he himself 
had been delivered. 

Some miles away from Jessie’s home was a small 
village, composed almost entirely of her people, as she 
was beginning to called the Portuguese. There she had 
heard a Protestant mission church had been established. 
Just what success the effort was having she did not know, 
but as she grew to realize more and more the spiritual 
darkness in which the Portuguese lived, she was thank- 
ful that a few had been gathered in a church where 

Maree ” was not adored, but where God himself, and 
his Son, Jesus Christ, were worshiped, and to them 
was all praise rendered. 


CHAPTEE VII. 


LEAKNING PATIENCE. 

“ Life for God in public is a mere sounding brass and tinkling 
cymbal, unless it is balanced by life with God in secret.” 

T KNOW what I will do to make myself pleasant/^ 
J- resolved Jessie, desperately, I will sing.^^ 

She resolutely began humming. She had remembered 
a time when her family had lived for a while in a house 
occupied by another, and the mother of the other fam- 
ily had a habit, when her children grew cross or tired 
and fretful, of beginning to sing as she worked. Often 
Jessie had heard, through the partition, the sound of 
that mother’s voice beginning some little tune which 
the children knew. Before she had sung long, one or 
another of the children would commence to sing too, 
and soon another would join the song, and peace would 
return. Jessie had thought it a very good way, since 
no one can sing and say cross things at the same time, 
very well. Now, when her own irritability seemed 
this evening to rise against both watching and prayer, 
Jessie thought of adopting the method which that 
mother employed. 

When other women would have scolded she sung,’^ 
remembered Jessie ; I will sing.” 


103 


104 


Jessie’s theee kesolutions. 


She hummed vigorously. With the usual perverse- 
ness of human nature, she felt impatient at the sound 
of her own humming. It sounded as if she were feel- 
ing pleasant when she knew she was not. 

It had been a hard day. She had swept and cleaned ; 
had mopped the kitchen oilcloth ; had filled lamps and 
given a music lesson to a little girl, and heard also the 
child’s recitations, for she came to Jessie instead of 
going to the public school. That was Jessie’s fore- 
noon. In the afternoon, she had gone out to give 
three music lessons to scholars in houses rather far 
apart, so that when she came home with a headache, 
and hurried into the house only to find a letter* that 
she must carry to a woman who lived some distance 
away, it was five o’clock. A rocking-chair caught the 
ruffle of Jessie’s dress, as she hastened by, and ripped 
the seam for about a foot. The ruffle hung dismally 
downward. 

Oh, just look at that ! ” cried Jessie, despairingly. 

She was so tired. She disliked sewing, and here 
was a hindrance when she was in such a hurry ! The 
sound of the opening of the oven door came from the 
kitchen. 

You had better eat supper before you try to do 
that errand,” advised Aunt Abby’s voice from the dis- 
tance. ^^I have made some biscuit, and they are 
almost done, and I guess your mother is ready to get 
up to supper.” 


LEAKNING PATIEi^CE. 


105 


Jessie had it in her heart to say : Oh, what do 
you bother me about anything to eat now for, when 
you see I am in such a hurry ? 

But she stopped herself in time. She found a needle 
and soberly sewed on the ruffle. She helped her 
mother out to the table, and they began to eat the bis- 
cuits that Aunt Abby had taxed her strength to make. 
Before supper was over a neighbor came to the door on 
an errand. 

knew it was early for supper, but I thought 
Jessie would be so tired when she came home she would 
want something to eat,^^ apologized Aunt Abby to the 
neighbor. 

Jessicas conscience smote her for her inward impa- 
tience. Aunt Abby had done her best to anticipate 
the girfs weariness. 

Oh, I do wish,^^ thought Jessie, as she finished her 
supper, that I wouldn’t be cross ! ” 

She remembered all this now, after supper, when 
she had done her errand and come home, and when, as 
a remedy for irritation, she resolved to sing. This ex- 
pedient continued to annoy her, and at last, when it 
grew dusk, she went out of doors, and took the hoe from 
the shed. Perhaps a little work in the garden among 
the flowers, in the cool evening, might tend to quiet her 
tired nerves, and make her more patient. 

Jessie hoed awhile, and the healthful exercise did 
rest her mind. But soon a small boy acquaintance 


106 Jessie’s theee resolutions. 

came by, and seeing her at work, ran up the steps into 
the yard. 

^^You ought not to do that,” commented the 
friendly little fellow. 

Why?” laughed Jessie, whose crossness had been 
partly physical, and who now felt better. 

The small boy reached toward her and took the hoe. 

I’ll do it,” he offered. 

think it’s almost done, Teddy, anyway,” an- 
swered Jessie, looking at the walks and beds ; you 
needn’t do it.” 

But Teddy hoed vigorously. There were some 
small, stubby, dry roots of grass beside one of the beds, 
and Teddy hit at the roots with enthusiasm. Jessie 
stood beside him, and they talked as the summer twi- 
light deepened. She talked to him about his vacation, 
and about Fourth of July and his prospects for fire- 
crackers, and by-and-by Jessie gently led the conversa- 
tion around to that most important question on which 
two immortal beings, bound for eternity, can speak to 
one another. Once Jessie would not have realized that 
these moments of pleasant, friendly talk could be an 
opportunity for anything higher, but ever since that 
day at the mission meeting, months before, when the 
leader had asked that question, To preach the gospel, 
how are you going to do it?” Jessie had discovered a 
great many more opportunities in her life than she ever 
before had supposed were possible. She was trying to 


LEARNING PATIENCE. 


107 


accustom herself to speaking to people, as she found 
opportunity. 

And so to-night she kindly asked her little friend : 

I wonder, Teddy, if you are trying to be a real 
Christian ? 

The nine-years-old boy hoed vigorously for a few 
moments without answering. Jessie knew he had a 
good, Christian mother, but the girl thought that per- 
haps it might be as well for some one else to speak to 
the boy too. Jessie could remember that when she 
was a child, it made a great impression on her to have 
some one outside the family take pains enough to speak 
to her about becoming a Christian, although her own 
mother often talked to her on the subject. 

After a few minutes, Teddy stopped hoeing, and 
straightened up. 

I^m going to try real hard to be a Christian,^^ he 
answered, in his queer boyish fashion, but I get mad 
so easy, you know ! 

His listener felt a thrill of inward sympathy. Who 
was she, that this child should confess to her his tempta- 
tion ? 

I have to do the dishes nights,^^ continued Teddy, 
frankly, and I get all wet, you know — my clothes 
do — ^washing the dishes.^^ 

Teddy gave a gesture over his chest, and Jessie 
could readily understand how a small boy, standing at 
a sink might splash water on himself as he washed 
dishes. 


108 JESSIE^S THKEE EESOLUTIONS. 

And that makes me mad ! went on the honest 
little confesser before her. ^^And sometimes — some- 
times I get so mad. I think, ^ Well, I won’t say my 
prayers to-night ! ’ And I go to bed, and don’t say 
them. And I lie awake, and then sometimes after- 
ward I think, ^ Well, maybe I’d better ! ’ and I get 
out of bed and kneel down, and say them. One night 
I got up about half-past ten and said my prayers ! ” 

There was silence. Teddy did not know that in the 
heart of his listener there was penitence for the same 
sin of hastiness which he regretted. 

Touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” thought 
Jessie, ^^we have not an high priest who cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” 

And it was with the remembrance that this tender 
and merciful High Priest heard what his two children 
talked of this summer night in the twilight, that Jessie 
answered Teddy aloud, with grave friendliness. 

^^Yes, I should think you would want to pray, 
Teddy. Praying helps us all.” 

^^Yes,” agreed Teddy, going on with his hoeing; 

I think perhaps I’d die in the night, and I’d want 
to go to heaven. Mother wants us to say our prayers, 
and I’m going to.” 

Very tender was the talk that followed between the 
two, all the more tender because she to whom Teddy 
confessed as a person very much better than he, felt 
how often she was taken in the same sin of temper. 


LEAKNING PATIENCE. 


109 


When Jessie put away her hoe in the shed, after Teddy 
had gone home, there were tears in her eyes. She 
went into the house and found Miss HavergaFs little 
book, Kept for the Master’s Use,” and read part of 
that chapter which contains words so helpful to those 
of us who are tempted to lose patience, and find it hard 
at times not to be irritable. Here is Mis& Havergal’s 
remedy : 

“ Keep my lips, that they may be 
Filled with messages from thee.” 

The days are past forever when we said, ‘ Our lips 
are our own.’ Now we know that they are not our 
own. 

And yet how many of my readers often have the 
miserable consciousness that they have ^ spoken unad- 
visedly with their lips ’ ! How many pray, ^ Keep the 
door of my lips,’ when the very last thing they think 
of expecting is that they will be kept ! They deliber- 
ately make up their minds that hasty words, or foolish 
words, or exaggerated words, according to their respec- 
tive temptations, must and will slip out of that door, 
and that it can’t be helped. The extent of the real 
meaning of their prayer was merely that not quite so 
many might slip out. As their faith went no farther, 
the answer went no farther, and so the door was not 
kept. 

^^Do let us look the matter straight in the face. 
Either we have committed our lips to the Lord, or we 


110 Jessie’s theee eesolutions. 

have not. This question must be settled first. If not, 
oh do not let another hour pass ! Take them to Jesus, 
and ask him to take them.” 

I must ask him too in faith. There is so little faith 
in the reality of his being, so far 'as the practical affairs 
of life are concerned. I must believe that he is, and 
that he is the director of all them that carry their lives 
unto him. So Jessie thought for a moment, and then 
she read on : 

^^But when you have committed them to him, it 
comes to this : is he able or he is not able to keep that 
which you have committed to him ? If he is not able, 
of course you may as well, give up at once, for your 
own experience has abundantly proved that you are not 
able, so there is no help for you. But, if he is able — 
nay, thank God there is no Gf ’ on this side ! — say, 
rather, as he is able, where was this necessity of per- 
petual failure ? You have been fancying yourself vir- 
tually doomed and fated to it, and therefore you have 
gone on in it, while all the time his arm was not short- 
ened that it could not save, but you have been limiting 
the Holy One of Israel. Honestly now, have you 
trusted him to keep your lips this day ? Trust neces- 
sarily implies expectation that what we have entrusted 
will be kept. If you have not expected him to keep^ 
you have not trusted. You may have tried, and tried 
very hard, but you have not trusted, and therefore you 
have not been kept.” 


LEAENING PATIENCE. 


Ill 


As Jessie read, realizing her many failings and 
weaknesses, she almost despaired of being a valiant 
soldier. To her heart came the comforting words : 
« My grace is sufficient for thee. . . I will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee,^^ and she began to trust in fuller 
measure than ever before. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 

“If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’’ 
(Kom. 8 : 9). The Spirit of Christ led him to give himself for the 
salvation of the world. If there are any professing Christians 
who are not in some true sense giving themselves for the salva- 
tion of the world, how are they Christ’s ? — The Kingdom. 

TT is beautiful ! exclaimed Aunt Abby. 

She and Jessie stood on a road and looked 
toward the water. There was a broad expanse of sand 
backed by dark yellow bluffs. Bunches of kelp lay 
here and there along the beach. Near the waves, the 
flat beach was covered for a long distance with small, 
white acorn-limpets, that almost gave the appearance 
of a frost on the ground. There were little pools left 
by the tide. Farther on, the sands stopped at a spur 
of rocks that shot darkly out into the water. A boy 
was coming along the road carrying some white fish 
that he had caught. 

It must be almost time for the meeting,^^ suggested 
Aunt Abby, with one last look at the beautiful expanse 
of water with its white foam. 

Yes,^^ answered Jessie ; I think we must go, if 
we want to be there on time.’^ 


112 



Jessie’s Three Resolutions, 


Page 112. 




THE FIELD WIDENS. 


113 


I do/^ replied Aunt Abby ; I want to hear that 
man speak.^^ 

The two turned and retraced their steps toward the 
seaside encampment where the Baptist convention was 
being held. Jessie and Aunt Abby and the invalid 
mother were having a rare treat. They had managed 
to come to this seaside place for a few days^ and now 
this morning, a missionary, who was about to return 
to China, after successfully working among the Chinese 
in California and on the Pacific coast for many years, 
was to make a farewell speech. Jessie’s mother was 
hardly able to attend, but Aunt Abby was very anxious 
to hear the missionary’s words. By the time that 
Jessie and her aunt reached the auditorium, the mis- 
sionary was going to the platform. 

From my childhood,” said he, I never had any 
other ambition than to be a missionary. When I was 
twenty-three years old, I first went to China.” 

After speaking of his stay there, and of his subse- 
quent return to the United States, the speaker continued : 

For eighteen years I have lived in this country with 
a yearning to return to China. I have gone time and 
time again to see the missionaries off, and every time I 
have yearned to go with them. Yet my own yearning 
has nothing to do with my going to China now. 

I pity the condition of the heathen Chinese. I 
know that the heathen perish without the gospel. I 
have moved among the sweltering crowds in China, and 
H 


114 Jessie’s theee resolutions. 

I have been almost overwhelmed with the feeling, ^ Con- 
fronted by an eternal banishment from God ! ’ That 
thought has spurred me on to work. Yet it is not be- 
cause of pity for the heathen that I go to China now. 

I think I can do more for the cause of Christ in 
China than here. Opportunities there are greater. 
Missionaries can reach a more influential class of 
Chinese people in China than in the United States. 
Yet it is not because I think I can do more that I go. 
I go back to China because I believe I have a personal 
command from the Lord now. There are three things 
that are important elements in deciding whether one 
shall go as a missionary or not. They are : (1) An 
abiding conviction in the soul ; (2) the approving 
judgment of judicious brethren ; (3) the openings of 
God’s providence. Without any one of these the evi- 
dence is incomplete. I feel that God has answered 
my prayers just as clearly by shutting doors before me 
as by opening doors. 

The question for each one of us is, ^ What will the 
Lord have me to do ? ’ Put the question to the Lord. 
I believe the Lord Jesus will let us know. There are 
ways by which you may find out what the Lord has 
for you to do. God has a specific work for you.” 

The missionary proceeded to tell of incidents con- 
nected with his former work in China. In a seaboard 
city a Chinaman, who unknown to the missionary 
had been following him from place to place listening 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


115 


to his preaching, went to the room where were two 
converted Chinese, and said to one of them ; I^m a 
Chinaman, and youh’e a Chinaman. Now tell me, are 
these tilings so, or does the white man give yon money 
to say they are so ? ” 

The Christian Chinaman, in reply, gave his Chris- 
tian experience. 

The stranger said : 

If that is so, I want that religion.^^ 

The stranger came every day after that to listen to 
the reading of the Bible. He could not read himself. 
He would listen, and then he would go into a corner 
of the room and pray. He did not know anything 
about secret prayer. He prayed aloud, and of all the 
prayers the missionary ever heard the prayers of that 
poor heathen were the most penitent and heartbroken. 
He was converted. His employer said that the man 
must discard Christianity, or be discharged. The man 
suffered discharge and went home, a long distance 
away in the country, to tell his mother of the Christian 
religion. As he went he preached Christ, and on 
reaching home talked about Jesus until the whole 
family became enthusiastic. The old Chinese mother, 
eighty years of age, had no way to go to the missionary 
but on horseback. She said : I want to be saved. 
If s my last chance,^ ^ and she rode the seventy miles 
back through the mountains. Two sisters-in-law of 
the man, his wife, and yoimger brother, went too. 


116 Jessie’s theee besolutions. 

The women had the little feet, but they managed to 
walk all the way. The company found the missionary, 
stayed in the city at their own expense for some time, 
and the old mother, the younger brother, and the two 
sisters-in-law were converted. On their way baek 
home again they stopped at a house, and talked all 
night. The wife of the man of the house became so 
interested in the Christian religion that she gave her 
husband no peace until he allowed her to take a donkey, 
and make the journey to find out about this religion. 
She also was converted. 

Now the missionary said he was going back to the 
same field where he had before worked. He had not 
known it, but all these years the Chinese Christians 
there had been praying God to send him back to them. 
And now their prayers were answered. 

The missionary bade a solemn farewell to his Baptist 
brethren. Some man in the back part of the audience 
began to sing, God be with you till we meet again.” 

The audience joined in the song, but Jessie could 
not sing. In front of her a woman also wept. Jessie 
knew her as the wife of a minister whom the girl had 
once heard say that all his life he had longed to go to 
the foreign field, but the Lord seemed to shut the way. 
The minister and his wife were most earnest laborers 
for foreign missions, so far as that work might be 
pushed forward in California. And yet now the wife 
wept, as if completely overcome by the words to which 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


117 


she had just listened. It was so sore a trial to hear 
the cries from heathen lands, and be unable to respond. 
Ah, who could think of those thousands upon thou- 
sands who have never so much as heard of the gospel, 
and not feel stirred ? Who that has felt the saving 
power of Christ would not weep, and pray, and long 
to go as a messenger to those who pass down to death ? 
No wonder Jessie wept. 

She had tried to do what she could for the Chinese 
around her at home. She had taught in the Chinese 
Sunday-school ; she had distributed Chinese New Tes- 
taments ; and yet she felt that she had done very little, 
i The Chinese were different from the Portuguese in 
being really heathen. The Portuguese had heard part 
of the gospel, even if it was imbued with Catholicism. 
They had heard of Christ, even though they trusted in 
their own works for salvation.7 

Oh, I wish I could go ! I wish I could go as a 
foreign missionary ! Jessie cried, inwardly, as she and 
Aunt Abby walked home. 

What was it that the missionary had said ? 

The question for each one of us is, ^ What will the 
Lord have me to do ? ^ Put the question to the Lord. 
I believe the Lord Jesus will let us know.^^ 

It is such a beautiful thing that the Lord lets each 
one of us have some part in his work ! broke forth 
Aunt Abby, as the two walked together. ^^There^s 
that missionary going to carry the gospel to hundreds 


118 


JESSIE S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


in China. And here are able to work among the 
Portuguese and the Chinese here. And here am I, 
old and not able to work for missions in China or here, 
either ; but I can pray for both ! If s so beautiful that 
each one’s part can fit into another one’s that way ! ” 

Jessie looked up, and saw the glow of consecration 
in the old eyes. And the girl thought what a beautiful 
part of his work God had granted to her, to be able to 
care for and supply the needs of this dear old saint in 
her last years. And that other dear one who was 
waiting for them now, would not God greatly bless 
tlie foreign mission work in answer to the prayers of 
these two Avomen ? 

am sure. Aunt Abby,” ansAvered the girl, feel- 
ing the trembling old hand Avithin her arm, your part 
in foreign missions is a very large one.” 

Jessie’s mother was Avaiting for them, and listened 
eagerly to Aunt Abby’s animated account of the mis- 
sionary’s address. 

I suppose some people would think that mission- 
ary was going off on a real foolish errand,” remarked 
Jessie’s mother ; folks that don’t believe in the con- 
version of Chinese. But Chinese can be converted. 
Why think of that Chinaman doAvn at Los Angeles, 
Leong Chow ! He Avas in a store Avith his uncle — that 
is, the establishment pretended to be a store, but the 
chief profit came from the gambling tables. Often a 
boAvlful of gold coin Avould be brought in as profit 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


119 


and divided between Leong Chow and his uncle. But 
when Leong Chow became a Christian, he felt that he 
could not keep on living by gambling tables, and so had 
given up everything. He went to Ventura, and, as he 
was not able to do hard work, he tried to support him- 
self by fishing with a hook and line at the end of the 
wharf. And then, as he wanted to be a missionary 
among the Chinese, he was appointed to be a helper at 
ten dollars a month, and he took the little pay joyfully, 
and gave his whole time to missionary work among 
the Chinese, and to studying in order to become a 
minister. And I should like to know what better 
proof a man could give of his change of heart and his 
belief in Christianity than his giving up a business 
which was easy and profitable, though mcked, and ac- 
cepting a position at ten dollars a month, working to 
bring his countrymen to Christ ! One would feel 
almost sure a white person was a Christian who would 
so completely sacrifice his financial prospects for the 
sake of religion. 

Yes,^^ returned Aunt Abby ; and there was Loo 
Ying, of Los Angeles. How he worked after he was 
converted ! And then the difficulties he encountered 
among his countrymen. All liad some excuse, often 
very trivial, with which to meet his invitations. One 
old man said to him once, ^ I cannot, I am too old.^ 
Then Loo Ying told him that the old people need 
Christ even more than the younger people. It makes 


120 


Jessie’s three resolutions 


me very humble when I think of his work, his courage, 
his zeal, his earnest longing and strong determination 
to bring his people to Christ. 

^^And he wasn’t discouraged even about those 
Chinese who say they do not believe either in Christ or 
Confucius, but spend their money having as good time 
as possible. Loo Ying said, ^ Although they are not 
easy to convert with our human thought, the mighty 
God can reach these very easy.’ ” 

What seems to me another real proof of a China- 
man’s conversion is his taking the Christian religion 
back to China with him,” rejoined Jessie’s mother. 

Do you remember about Leu Haw King, who was a 
Methodist preacher here in California? He went 
back to China, you know, to his native village, and 
one day he was trying to tell a professor of high rank 
in the college there, about the Christian religion. 
When Leu Haw Hing was about half-way through 
talking, his uncle came in and walked up to him, 
snatched the Bible from his hand, and threw the book 
into the gutter. The Bible was badly damaged, but 
Haw Hing did not get angry or say a word. He only 
walked over to the gutter, picked up the Bible, wiped 
it with his handkerchief, came back to the professor, 
and went on speaking as if nothing had happened. 
That impressed the professor. He thought about it for 
two days. He said to himself : ^ If Christianity can 
make a man so meek and true, that is the doctrine I 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


121 


want.^ So the professor became a Christian, gave up 
his Chinese college at the end of the year, and next 
year became professor in a Christian college at Canton, 
where he has done a great deal of good.’^ 

And I have heard,^^ returned Aunt Abby, that 
some of the Christian Chinese who go back home from 
California have to endure great persecution, but are 
steadfast and firm amid it all, in fact, so much so, that 
one of the evangelists, Mr. Joe Jet, I think it was, 
said he considered their fidelity and consecration could 
not have been surpassed even in the histories of the 
disciples of the early church. There can be no doubt 
about the real conversion of such men.^^ 

Don’t you remember,” asked her sister, ^^that 
Chinaman of San Francisco, who, when he was away 
from school a few months, wrote back to his teacher 
that he missed the teaching he had been having ? He 
said, ^When you teach me about Jesus, it is like a 
sheep on the mountain eating green grass, and like 
pouring cool water on my heart when I am thirsty.’ ” 
And so the two women talked on of the Baptist 
Chinese Church in San Francisco, of the faithfulness 
of the converted Chinamen there ; of their readiness to 
give for missions, even at a cost of personal sacrifice ; 
of the work among the Chinese in Sacramento, Fresno, 
Tulare, and Los Angeles ; and of the prophecy of Dong 
Gong, one of the Baptist Chinese of San Francisco, that 
China will yet become a Christian nation. 


122 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


So interested did they become that they called Jessie 
from the other room to read them the extract to which 
they had referred. 

Knowing just where it was^ Jessie easily found it, 
and read, in a firm, clear voice, very pleasing to her 
auditors, for she had a talent in that direction. 

Extract from a communication written by Mr. 
Dong Gong, member of the Chinese Baptist Church, 
of San Francisco, and handed to Rev. Dr. Hartwell, 
then superintendent of missions for the -Chinese on the 
Pacific Coast : ^ I do not believe that China is a nation 
deserted of God, for they have always believed in a 
spirit greater than man. When the doctrine of Mo- 
hammed was introduced, Ko-Wongtai (Emperor) ap- 
pointed Lee Chung to translate his teaching, called it a 
holy book and wished it to be adopted by the people. 
Buddhism they adopted with devotion. When the 
Christian religion was first introduced by the Catholics, 
Tsui Kwong Kai, the Prime Minister of the State of 
the Ming Dynasty, appealed to the emperor to adopt it. 
He considered all other religions insufficient to change 
the hearts of men. He stated that two hundred and 
fifty years to Mohammed and eighteen hundred years 
devoted to Buddhism, had failed to give satisfaction, or 
show improvement. The prayers of the priesthood 
were a hidden secret ; no man understood them. He 
then explained the Christian religion, its precepts and 
teachings. I believe China will yet become a Christian 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


123 


nation ; although slowly, yet such a time will surely 
come.^ 

Without commenting upon the extract, Jessie went to 
her room as soon as it was finished, and there thanked 
God that she had ever been permitted to teach among 
the Chinese. And turning the leaves of a copy of the 
Kingdom, that she had picked up in the auditorium, 
she found this statement concerning China : As the 
whole of the East is becoming better known, and the 
real character of its various peoples more correctly 
understood, it is acknowledged that China dominates 
the East, and the conversion of China means the tri- 
umph of Christianity in Asia. The reason for this lies 
not only in the immense size of the country and the 
almost inconceivable multitude of the people, in the 
strength of their intellectual and moral character, and 
in their indefatigable industry, but also in the fact that 
they are making a peaceful invasion of all the other 
countries of Asia, and by their superior ability and 
industry capturing the commercial and industrial activ- 
ities of those countries from the nerveless hands of the 
natives. The business of Siam is almost wholly in the 
hands of the Chinese. The same is largely true of the 
straits, settlements, and adjacent islands, and they are 
becoming increasingly influential every year in Burma, 
India, and even in Japan. It is saying very little to 
observe that the evangelization of the Chinese is more 
important than that of any other race. As far as all 


124 


Jessie’s thkee kesolutions. 


human standards are concerned, they are so far beyond 
any other heathen nation, that there is no comparison 
to be made.” 

And I can work for them,” whispered Jessie ; I 
can do a little for them, even though I am so busy at 
home. I am so thankful that I can have part in the 
work for that great nation ! Who knows how far such 
work done in California may be carried by the con- 
verted Chinese who go back to China.” 

That is a question that no American in the United 
States can answer. How far will Christian work done 
here extend ! How far does this home work become 
foreign? Mr. Joe Jet, a Christian evangelist, returned 
from this country to China, and he with his workers, a 
colporter, a physician, and an assistant, received many 
invitations to preach and give medical treatment among 
the villages of South China, most of the meetings 
being held in ancestral halls, a privilege that in former 
years would not have been allowed. In one place Joe 
Jet and his workers were permitted to use a large 
temple where there were many idols. More than eight 
hundred people came from the surrounding villages to 
this temple for medical treatment, and more than a 
thousand people heard the word of God. Said Jee 
Gam, another Christian Chinese : Many of the hear- 
ers have shown gratitude for our work. The keeper 
of the temple frankly confessed, when questioned by 
Joe Jet, that the idol was simply a block of wood, and 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


125 


therefore, it had no spirit. May the Lord water the 
seed sown in this temple. 

Surely every American Christian ought to be alert 
to bring every Chinaman possible to the knowledge 
of Christ. Who can tell how many foreign mission- 
aries one American Christian may send back to China 
in this way ? Look at the following facts, and see if 
they are not enough to startle every true Christian 
into activity : 

China’s population is estimated at three hundred 
and eighty-two millions. China holds one-third of the 
entire heathen world, and one man in every four on 
this planet is a Chinaman. Only one in ten thousand 
has ever heard of Christianity. There are still in 
China one thousand counties, and an almost countless 
number of cities, towns, and villages, wherein the 
gospel has never been preached. Whole provinces, 
containing from five* million to thirty million souls 
each, have scarcely been been trod by Christian feet. 

Could China’s population be equally apportioned 
to the present staff of missionaries, male and female, 
each would have a parish of three hundred and fifty 
thousand souls. One thousand four hundred Chinese 
have passed into Christless graves during the past sixty 
minutes. Thirty thousand will to-day be ushered into 
eternity ! ” 

The subject was one very near her heart, and Jessie 
read on, her interest deepening as she did so. The maga- 


126 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


ziiies were at her hand^ and with little effort could she 
turn to items on China. From the ^^Ameriean Home 
Missionary ” she read : 

For this mission in California is proving a direct 
and important feeder of the foreign missionary enter- 
prise in China. Many who are converted in America 
are led to go back to preach the gospel to their coun- 
trymen, while those who remain here have joined in 
supporting and directing a mission there. In co-opera- 
tion with our American Board, and under the care of 
its missionaries, they have established themselves in 
Southern China, whence most of these emigrants have 
come, and there they are seeking to focus the effort of 
returning Christian Chinaman to proclaim the gospel.” 

A work which so cements home and foreign missions, 
and leads the disciple to promptly and faithfully fulfill 
his Lord’s last command, lays claim to our abundant 
support.” 

‘‘ In regard to the faithfulness of Christian Chinese, 
take this testimony of Louie Quong, a converted 
Chinaman of San Francisco : ^ When our store on Du- 
pont street was started, about four years ago, the 
heathen Chinese came, as it is their custom, with the 
subscription books to get some money from the firm 
for the Joss house. I told them that I am a Christian 
and cannot give to the Joss houses, and though they 
have asked me very often, I have never allowed the 
name of our firm to appear in their subscription books. 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


127 


Tlioiigli all my cousins know that I am a Christian, 
they never do anything against me for it, except to 
now and then make a little fun of me.^ 

On the Pacific coast there are now over two thou- 
sand Christian Chinese who have been received as 
members of evangelical churches.^^ 

The following is Louie Quong^s account of his 
conversion in San Francisco : 

It was May, 1882, when I first beheld the shores 
of San Francisco. Only tvvo or three days after my 
arrival, a friend invited me to go with him to school. 
So we went to the Central Mission House, and, though 
rather lazy and not at all anxious to learn, I attended 
school pretty regularly. The first sermon I heard 
there was about Jesus walking on the water, and I 
thought the man who would preach such a thing must be 
crazy. But as I heard more of the gospel story, my 
mind gradually changed, and when one evening a 
Christian brother told about Nicodemus, my heart was 
touched. However, I did not then decide to accept 
Christ. Soon after this, Mr. Jee Gam asked me to 
join the Christian Association. I thought that it 
could do me no harm to do so, and as it is always hard 
for me to refuse, I consented. Now I know that, 
though a member of our Association, I was not at that 
time really a follower of the blessed Jesus. 

Pretty soon my brother and heathen cousins heard 
that I had joined the Christians, and teased me and 


128 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

laughed at me for it. I told them that I had joined 
the Association^ but that I only pretended to be a 
Christian. For several months I had passed as a 
Christian, when one of the brethren, Yee Yon, invited 
me to live with him at the Christian Brethren’s Home. 

There I was all the time in the company of Chris- 
tian men, and we studied the Bible a great deal. I 
noticed that the behaviour and actions of these Chris- 
tian people were different from those of the heathen. 
And I am now sure it was while studying the Bible 
with these faithful friends that God’s Spirit changed 
my heart, and I accepted the Saviour of the world as 
my Saviour. 

^^Upon Louie Quong’s joining the church in 1884, 
his brother was offended. Louie Quong says : ^ My 
brother was very angry about it and wrote to my 
father, accusing me of changing to the foreign religion. 
My father sent me a letter, scolding me, and command- 
ing me to keep my old Chinese belief. As it happened, 
about this time my Christian friend, Yee Yon, was just 
returning to China. I sent him to my father with a 
sum of money and a long letter, explaining to him the 
Christian religion ; also my friend talked to him a 
great deal. As a result of this my father’s next letter 
said : No matter where you are, or what you are, if 
you are good, that will be all right, and I shall be 
satisfied with you.” Since then my parents have trou- 
bled me no more about my religion.’ ” 


THE FIELD WIDENS. 


129 


Dong Gong, the Baptist Chinaman of San Fran- 
cisco, before referred to, says : ^ A gentleman came to 
the mission and talked to the Chinese a few times about 
Christianity, and made but little impression. After- 
ward I met him, and he said he thought the Chinese 
could not be converted. He said,-^^ Look at the Sand- 
wich Islands and other islands ; almost the entire 
population converted in a few years.^^ I told him the 
Islands did not have the belief and teaching the 
Chinese had, and the Islands are more or less controlled 
by Europeans and their teachings and books, and they 
embrace a faith more readily, but the Chinese have 
such numberless teachings, rewarding the people who 
do good and punishing the wrong- doers.^ 

Jessie learned a good deal from her reading, and just 
as she was wondering what she could do, she came 
upon the following suggestion, which plan had been 
successfully tried by some schools and mission lands. 

One very simple method of work has been sug- 
gested, in which any of our youngest members may 
engage ; that is, to have Scripture texts printed on red 
paper and distributed wherever we find a Chinaman. 
Red is the favorite color of the Chinese, and they are 
willing to hang such cards in their laundries where 
some one will see them and perhaps be helped, even if 
the owner himself cares nothing for the thought ex- 
pressed.^^ 

The idea was a new one to Jessie, but after a mo- 

I 


130 


Jessie’s three resolutioits. 


ment’s thought she clearly saw how helpful it might 
easily become. Many Chinese she knew could read 
English, and if the texts were simple and easily read, 
printed in large, clear letters, they might reach some 
dark heart, and thereby prove a great blessing. 


CHAPTER IX. 


JESSIE PERSEVEKES. 

“ Laborers wanted.’’* The ripening grain 
Waits to welcome the reaper’s cry; 

The Lord of the harvest calls again ; 

Who among us shall first reply, 

“ Who is wanted, Lord ? Is it I ? ” 

The Master calls, but the servants wait ; 

Fields gleam white ’neath a cloudless sky ; 

Will none seize sickle before too late. 

Ere the winter’s winds come sweeping by? 

Who is delaying? Is it I? 

P ORTUGUESE trooped by twos and threes through 
the darkness. • The gaslight of the street lamps 
shone on the laborers^ and they passed into darkness 
again ; young girls with baskets, men talking together. 
The Portuguese were coming home from the jute mills 
and the cotton mill. Going over on a morning train 
one looked out of a car window and saw a numerous 
company of girls and boys, some mere children, not 
more than nine or ten years old, bound for their daily 
work in the jute mill. Passing down a street some 
afternoon one might see a long, stage-like vehicle, both 
sides lined with Portuguese young people, riding from 
the mills to their country homos. The jnte-mill day 
was done. 


131 


132 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


In town, on market days, the Portuguese women 
came in little companies to the train, and rode to 
the free market with their baskets on their arms. 
Coming home the baskets would be full of vegeta- 
bles and fruit, and an unlucky hen or two would hang 
head downward, grasped by a Portuguese woman’s 
hand. The Portuguese are thrifty, and almost always 
have an honest penny to spend. 

Over in San Francisco, the lists of letters adver- 
tised by the post office were divided into different 
nationalities, and there was sometimes a separate 
division of Cartas Portuguezas,” in which the 
names Manuel” and ^^Jose” shone pre-eminent 
as preferred Christian cognomens for the owners of 
uncalled-for letters written in that tongue for which 
the native Portuguese grammarians have claimed the 
title of eldest daughter of the Latin.” 

Up in the foothills of the Coast Range, Portuguese 
men cut the trees for firewood, and piled it beside the 
roads. Numerous Portuguese tilled vegetable gardens 
here and there through the county in which Jessie 
lived. And yet, numerous as these people were, she 
did not know of any especial religious work being 
done for them in her own town, unless it was by the 
Romait Catholics. 

But when the Portuguese are converted, they are 
true, I think,” said Aunt Abby. 

She had just been telling Jessie about the only 


JESSIE PEKSEVERES. 


133 


Protestant Portuguese whom they knew. His father 
had written to the young man, inviting him to come 
back to Portugal and be educated for a Roman 
Catholic priest. The father offered to pay all the 
son’s expenses for education, but the son could not 
give up his Protestant faith. He was working beyond 
his strength, trying to educate himself so as to become 
a Baptist preacher among his own countrymen. He 
could not become a Catholic priest, even though that 
might mean an easy life for him. He felt too deeply 
the need of his nation. The cry for prayers for 
his poor people ” was an earnest one from him. 

I am glad he is not going back to Portugal,” 
answered Jessie. I am afraid something would be 
done to him there. The encyclopsedias say that- 
though the Roman Catholic is the State religion, 
yet all other religions are tolerated. But I saw in 
another book the other day a statement which seemed 
to contradict that. I am afraid, if he went back, 
he would be persecuted some way. Don’t you know}I 
read the other day that at the Workers’ Convention, 
in Nashville, one man, Victor Spinetto, of Italy, sakl 
that he was once put upon bread and water for three 
weeks because a copy of the Bible was found in his 
possession ? Roman Catholicism hates the Bible. 
And the Portuguese believe the Catholics are right, 
I suppose.” 

‘^Whether all the Portuguese are firm Catholics 


134 Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 

or not/’ rejoined Aunt Abby, was reading only 
the other day about how the Portuguese and Catholi- 
cism got ahead of our missionaries down in Africa 
awhile ago.” 

They did ? ” questioned Jessie. 

Yes/’ affirmed Aunt Abby. Old Umzila, one 
of the Zulus there, said to INIr. Richards ; ^ Give us 
five missionaries as soon as possible.’ But old 
Umzila died without seeing his’ missionaries, and 
five years after the request his son, Gungunyano, 
was asked by missionaries to let them come in and 
plant missions. But he was under Portuguese influ- 
ence by that time, and two Catholic ^sisters’ were 
already on the field, and Gungunyano answered, the 
Protestant missionaries : ‘ Oh, no, not now ! Your 
feet have too long delayed to come. You see I have 
other teachers at last.’ ” 

Jessie sighed. 

That makes me think of the sentiment of a little 
poem I saw the other day, and echo it as my own, 
^ The King’s Business Requireth Haste.’ ” 

A poem did you say, dear ? ” 

^^Yes.” 

Will you not read it to me then ? ” 

Certainly. I will get it; it is in my scrap- 
book.” 

/ 

In a moment Jessie returned with the book in her 
hand. As she opened to the place she said : 


JESSIE PERSEVERES 


135 


It is by Mrs. E. E. Williams, and I think it is 
very pretty 
Then she read : 

^^THE king’s business REQUIRETH HASTE. 

“ How rapidly the time is flying, 

How little is being done : 

How many unsaved ones dying, 

How few for the Master won I 
Oh, see how the surging masses go 
Downward, still downward, to endless woe ! 

"While resting at ease on Zion’s walls 
The watchmen sleep though the Master calls, 

And the shadow of evening around them falls, 

And life’s sun is sinking low. 

“ Oh, think of the moments wasting. 

Slipping away so fast ; 

Of the hours so swiftly hasting 
Into the silent past; 

Of the days — each burdened with precious freight, 

Of opportunities, small and great. 

Of the harvest vast, of the laborers few. 

Of the idle hands, of the work to do — 

Oh, think I but listen — He callethyou; 

And ’twill soon be too late, too late I 

“ Then haste to the conflict, brothers, 

For the night is drawing on. 

When all we can do for others 
Will forevermore be done ! 

How short at the longest life must he I 
How near to us now is eternity 1 
For the love of souls to the work away. 

Nor linger idly another day ; 

But gladly now to the Master say ; 

* Hear am I, Lord; send me.’ ” 


136 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


Yes, it does/’ agreed Aunt Abby, earnestly, when 
she was through reading. However, referring to what 
Gungunyano said, I believe Africa has been thrown 
open more since he said that.” 

But it shows that Portuguese influence is Catholic 
influence everywhere,” inferred Jessie ; I wish those 
Catholic ‘ sisters ’ would not be so zealous.” 

And I wish Protestant Christians -would be more 
so,” returned Aunt Abby. 

Passing a number of houses , the next Sunday toward 
evening, when she was on her way to the young peo- 
ple’s prayer meeting, Jessie glanced up at a cottage, 
and saw a Portuguese woman holding a baby, looking 
out of the open window. A dark-eyed small boy put 
his head out of the other side of the double window. 
Behind him Jessie saw the heads of two little girls. 

Jessie passed on. Two Catholic nuns, shrouded in 
black, adorned with black crucifix and beads, wearing 
white inner margins to their black veils, met Jessie as 
she went toward the corner of the block. Jessie 
glanced behind her after passing the sisters.” She 
expected that they would stop at the Portuguese house, 
but the nuns went steadily on. The Portuguese 
woman at the window looked down at the nuns, but 
they did not look up or deign to notice her in any w^ay, 
as far as Jessie could see. The nuns went on toward 
the Catholic church and the convent, several blocks 
away. 


JESSIE PEESEVERES. 


137 


Jessie waited only until the nuns had gone past the 
Portuguese house. Then the girl turned back. She 
had found in her Bible a large colored card. 

Would the children like a picture-card ? asked 
Jessie, over the fence of the little yard. 

The nuns had not reached the corner of the block 
yet. They did not know what Jessie was attempting 
to do behind their backs. 

Yes/^ answered the woman at the window. 

There was no doubt about it. An excited rush was 
heard and three children burst out the door. The 
oldest girl reached the gate first, and Jessie gave the 
child the card, reading her the written prayer Create 
in me a clean heart, O God ! and adding a very few 
words of explanation. The child nodded assent. 

Give me a card ! eagerly called the black-eyed 
small boy, half-way down the steps of the house. 

have but one card with me,^^ apologized Jessie, 
who usually had distributed almost all her tracts and 
cards by Sunday evening. 

She invited the children to Sunday-school, explain- 
ing to her hearers where the school was held. The 
mother said they went to church, motioning toward 
the Catholic edifice in the distance. But, nevertheless, 
the mother seemed willing that the children should go 
to Sunday-school, and Jessie tried to explain at what 
time next Sunday the session would be held. 

She went on her way, but she had gone only the 


138 Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 

width of two or three house-yards^ when she heard 
shouts behind her, and turning, saw that she was 
wanted at the Portuguese house. She hastened back. 

You stop for me to go to school ? ” eagerly shouted 
the questioning little Portuguese boy from the win- 
dow ; you stop to-morrow morning ? ” 

The little fellow was greatly interested and excited. 

Is you the teacher ? ” he asked. 

Yes,” answered Jessie, meaning that she was one 
of them ; but not to-morrow. Next Sunday.” 

Just as she turned to go away, a Portuguese man 
came out of the door and stood looking at her. His 
face was somewhat forbidding, Jessie thought. She 
would not like to appeal to him about the little boy’s 
coming to Sunday-school. 

If that is the father, I don’t know about that boy’s 
being allowed to go,” thought Jessie, with some mis- 
giving. 

But when next Sunday came, Jessie planned to stop 
for the enthusiastic small Portuguese. She went down 
a hill, and crossed a bridge leading to an embankment. 
From there, as she walked, she could look down into 
the yard of a Chinese dwelling-house. Several of 
them lived there, and to one of them Jessie had given 
a copy of the New Testament in Chinese. She had ob- 
tained the Testament with some others from the agent 
of the Publication Society, each book being stamped 
with the words Presented by the American Baptist 


JESSIE PEESEVEKES. 


139 


Publication Society/^ The Chinese in this house 
seemed to be very industrious^ and one or two of them 
could talk English quite well. 

On the back porch of the little house Jessie could 
see one of the men sousing some clothes up and down in 
a tub. He left the clothes and went down the steps, 
and began wiping the clothes-line. Whatever the 
effect of Jessie’s Testament had been in that dwelling, 
one Chinese at least had not yet learned not to work 
on Sunday. 

^^But then, poor fellow!” thought Jessie: ^^even 
if that Testament has been read a little by all the Chi- 
nese in that house, yet they have the example of so 
many white people who break Sunday. I do hope 
that Testament will do good there. I am sure the 
one to whom I gave it seemed bright enough to under- 
stand a good deal that he might read in it.” 

And Jessie remembered hearing that at Fresno a 
woman went to visit an old Chinese whose son had 
been baptized at Tulare. The woman gave the old 
man part of the New Testament. The old man took 
it, but did not promise to read it. The woman spoke 
to him of his son’s conversion and baptism, and the 
poor old man said : My son loves his father no 

longer, now that he has joined the church I ” 

The poor man perhaps thought that when he should 
die, there would be no one to worship him, as his only 
son had become a Christian. 


140 


JESSIE^S THKEE EESOLUTIONS. 


Perhaps after his son came from Tulare to see the 
old man, the father may not have felt so badly/^ 
thought Jessie. I suppose it is hard to see one^s 
family leaving the religion of one’s fathers.” 

Nevertheless, she hoped that piece of a New Testa- 
ment might do good to the old man in Fresno, as she 
hoped the New Testaments she had distributed might 
be blessed here. And so, not quite discouraged by the 
sight of the Chinese still washing on Sunday, Jessie 
left the embankment and went on toward the house 
where the Portuguese lived. 

She reached it in a short time, but alas ! there were 
two Portuguese men sitting on the front steps. The 
little boy was there too. Jessie had planned to go up 
the steps and ring the bell, and perhaps have to wait 
for the boy to be made ready for Sunday-school. She 
had not thought of such apparitions as these two 
Portuguese men, one sitting a few steps above another. 

Jessie paused at the gate. She could not go by 
without speaking, after promising to stop for the little 
boy. 

Excuse me,” she began, ^^but ” 

There was a loud bang at the front door, and an- 
other child appeared, to whom the small boy shouted 
something. The Portuguese father commanded them 
to be still. 

What did you say ? ” he asked. 

I passed here last Sunday night,” explained Jessie, 


JESSIE PEESEVEEES. 


141 


and I asked the children if they would go to Sunday- 
school. The little boy wanted me to stop for him. 
May the children go ? 

^^No^ ma’am/^ promptly returned the Portuguese 
father. 

Jessie did not attempt to argue at all. 

I thought perhaps you would let them go/^ she 
said, meekly, and passed on. She heard a loud voice 
or two in Portuguese, but she could not tell whether the 
father was blaming the little boy, or whether some 
other cause produced the outburst. 

The Portuguese children would be perfectly willing 
to come to Sunday-school, and I think I could manage 
the mothers, but the fathers are apt to be so grim ! 
soliloquized Jessie ; and yet I don’t know that they 
can be blamed. I suppose they think I would lead 
their children wrong. I wonder if Tony will be at 
Sunday-school to-day ? ” 

Tony ” was a Portuguese boy who had suddenly 
appeared among Jessie’s Sunday-school boys a little 
while before this. He was a worker in the cotton 
mills. Thirteen years old was Tony, and he stretched 
his neck and squirmed around in the class to see 
what the boys in other classes were doing. Jessie tried 
to teach him to the best of her ability, but he came 
only two Sundays. When he stopped coming, Jessie 
went to see his mother, Mrs. Alves, who promised that 
Tony should come by-and-by,” but the lad had never 


142 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


reappeared, Jessie obtained a Portuguese New Testa- 
ment, and carried it to Mrs. Alves, who could read 
Portuguese, but whose stock of English words was 
so small that a girl from across the street had to be 
called in to make conversations between Jessie and 
Mrs. Alves clear. If the language had been Spanish, 
Jessie thought she could, perhaps, have expressed her- 
self so as to make Mrs. Alves understand. But, 
though there were some Spanish in San Francisco, 
yet there appeared to be almost none where Jessie 
lived, the Portuguese seeming to be numerous, instead. 

How much ? questioned Mrs. Alves, turning the 
leaves of the New Testament Jessie had handed to 
her. 

Oh, nothing ! responded Jessie, suddenly becom- 
ing aware that there was a possibility of her being 
looked upon in the light of a book agent. ^^You 
read.^^ 

And Mrs. Alves kept the book, and thanked Jessie. 

Yet the girl wondered now if it might not have 
been better to charge Mrs. Alves five or ten cents for 
the Testament. Jessie had been informed that if the 
Portuguese were charged a little something for the 
book, the priest would not be so likely to get the Tes- 
taments. 

And yet Jessie felt a little gladness now as she went 
on her way, after being refused by the Portuguese 
father. She was thinking of the Portuguese Testa- 


JESSIE PERSEVERES. 


143 


ments that she had succeeded in distributing. They 
were few in number, but she thought of that Bible 
verse that likens the word of the Lord to a hammer — 
Is not my word like a fire ? saith the Lord ; and 
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? 

^^Like a hammer,’^ the girl repeated to herself. 
^^Who may resist such a weapon as that? Can 
even the church of Rome, mighty as it is, withstand 
the blows of the hammer of the Lord. There is hope 
yet for the Portuguese of California, if only the Bible 
might be placed in every home. But who shall do it ? 

Dr. Adoniram Judson, the great apostle of Burma, 
was of the opinion that God would honor his word 
wherever it was distributed. He believed that it 
would do a great work among the heathen, even where 
the voice of the living minister was not heard. If this 
be so, how necessary it is for us to give circulation to 
the word of God in the United States.^^ 

There were two other people^ among the varied na- 
tionalities of California who appealed especially to 
Jessie’s heart. They were the Spanish and the native 
Indians ; the Spanish untouched by Baptist influence, 
the only work being done in Los Angeles and vicinity 
was by the Presbyterians ; and the Indians who have 
been taught in part by the Baptist missionaries, Mr. 
and Mrs. Merriam, formerly of the Round Valley 
Reservation in northern California. Jessie could re- 
member how, in her childhood, the poor, degraded 


144 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


Digger Indians used to come to her home in a little 
town of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and ask for 
watermelons. She could remember the sound of the 
wailing for the dead, heard at evening, borne from 
the Indian camp far outside town. The sound of that 
sad wailing for the dead mingled with her thoughts 
and remembrances when Jessie read the following letter 
that evening, written by Mrs. Merriam to a member 
of the mission circle of Jessie’s church : 

Eound Valley Eeservation. 

My Dear Sisters : — I am very glad to tell you 
something regarding the people and our work here on 
this mission field, for I know that our hearts become 
more deeply interested in that of which we have some 
definite knowledge, and if there be a people that needs 
the kindly interest and earnest prayers of Christians, it 
certainly is these poor degraded Indians. 

This valley, as perhaps you know, is about two 
hundred miles north of you, nearly round, as its name 
implies, and entirely surrounded by mountains. In 
many respects it is a delightful valley. 

There are about six hundred Indians, representing 
remnants of several different tribes, though not of the 
most noble and intelligent ones. They are called 
civilized Indians, as they have adopted the American 
dress, and all, except the very old people, speak the 
English language quite well. The majority of them 


JESSIE PEESEVERES. 


145 


live at Headquarters and Lower Quarters, which are 
about a mile apart, though some are scattered about in 
different parts of the reservation ; they have little 
board cabins, with a rough fireplace, and usually one 
small window of four panes of glass, and this is so 
high that it is of but little use to them ; they almost 
invariably have the door open. Their cabins, with a 
few exceptions, are very filthy and filled with rubbish, 
and I often find three or four women sitting in the 
ashes and dirt in front of the fireplace, cooking or eat- 
ing their meal, which I will not attempt to describe, 
for I could not do it justice. It is a sad sight, and 
my heart aches for these poor souls in their degrada- 
tion. In one of my round of visits I came across 
wliat I supposed was a dog-house, but I saw a smoke 
issuing from it, and went up to it, and there found an 
old man curled up in that little tepee (I think they 
call it) apparently dying. There was a small opening, 
and just inside on the ground was a little fire made 
of small sticks, and here on the ground and in the 
smoke lay this human body, and I could do nothing for 
him, neither soul or body, for he could not understand 
a word of English, and I could not get near him. I 
turned away sick at heart. There was no one but an 
old blind sister to care for him. 

There is scarcely an old person on the Eeservation 
who is not totally blind or nearly so, and very many 
of the younger people. 

K 


146 


Jessie’s thkee kesolutions. 


^^The Indians here, as a class, are ignorant, de- 
graded, indolent, and addicted to nearly every vice. 
Drunkenness, with all its attendant evils, is common 
here, though liquor selling is not allowed on the 
Reservation ; but Covelo, the little town of white 
people about a mile from headquarters, supplies it 
freely. This, of course, is forbidden, but still it is 
done. Gambling is another vice for which the white 
man is largely responsible, and which deprives many 
an Indian home of many comforts it might other- 
wise have. There seems to be but little affection 
for one another in the households here. Their law 
is to take but not to give ; they seem to feel that the 
Government owes them everything, and they will not 
work unless compelled to. 

We have no help in our Sunday-school, as there 
are no Christian white people to assist, and the only 
Christian Indians there are cannot read. There are 
but two Indians, one man and one woman, who ever 
take any part in our meetings, though there are two or 
three more who say they are Christians, and I believe 
they are as far as they understand what it means. 
One of the most intelligent of these is slowly wasting 
with consumption. 

^^Our congregations vary, ranging from forty to 
seventy-five. 

When I visit these homes, I do not wonder that 
the young people want to get away from them, though 


JESSIE PERSEVERES. 


147 , 


there is no better place to go. I often go to the door 
and knock, or if the woman is outdoors, as she usually 
is when the sun shines, I speak to her and she will 
answer without even looking up, or asking me to be 
seated, but I go on talking to her, and in the mean- 
time look around, and if I see a bench or box that I 
can sit on, I help myself and interest myself in what- 
ever she is doing, and try to show her that I am inter- 
ested in her, both as respects this life and her future 
life, and repeat or read to her some passage from God^s 
word. 

There are exceptions of course to this ; in some 
of the cabins I am treated as civilly as by the white 
people.^’ 

There were no Indians in the place where Jessie 
lived, and so she felt she could not do anything for 
this people. Yet, as she remembered the sound of 
that wailing over the dead, she felt that among the 
California Indians there was scope for the efforts of 
Christian workers. How ignorant and hopeless were 
such Indians, and yet they had souls ! 

At a missionary meeting Jessie had once seen one of 
the two ladies who, before the coming of Mr. and Mrs. 
Merriam to Round Valley, had tried to carry on mis- 
sion work among the Indians there. When these two 
ladies first went to Round Valley, they had to live in 
a wretched building, worse than our barn at home,^^ 
said the worker whom Jessie saw, but through the 


148 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


Women’s Indian Association a new building was put 
up, and there the two teachers took in the Indian girls 
and kept them from the evils of camp life. The 
teachers held a woman’s meeting twice a week early 
in the morning, and from fifteen to twenty Indian 
women would come with their babies strapped on their 
backs. At first it was hard work to make the women 
realize that they could have a meeting of their own. 
They thought that meetings belonged to the men. 

At another mission meeting Jessie had once met a 
young lady who was a government teacher among the 
mission Indians at the reservation on the edge of the 
desert, about seventy-four miles below Los Angeles. 
This teacher. Miss Morris, had, at the time Jessie saw 
her, been fifteen months among the Indians, being the 
only white person on the reservation. The school- 
house having been burned, the brave young teacher 
lived in an Indian hovel, and taught school in another 
hovel, until the Indians, impatient at the government’s 
slowness in building another schoolhouse, sold their 
barley and they themselves built not only a school- 
house, but a small dwelling house for Miss Morris. 
Mission work was forbidden during school hours, but 
mornings, and Saturdays, and Sunday afternoons. Miss 
Morris tried to do all that she could in this direction. 

But no opportunity of doing anything for either 
the Indians or the Spanish seemed to come to Jessie, 
although she and her mother always read the Spanish 


JESkSIE peeseveres. 


149 


New Testament daily at morning prayers, keeping 
partly in touch with the language, if any opportunity 
should present itself. 

Though I suppose Spanish work would have the 
same difficulty that Portuguese work has,’^ Jessie rea- 
soned ; the opposition of the Catholic priests and 
nuns.’^ 

The Portuguese and Chinese seemed to be the people 
among whom opportunities were given to her. 

Coming out of a grocery store one evening after 
dusk, Jessie found a wagon waiting beside the walk. 
In the wagon were a Portuguese father and mother 
with four boys. They looked as if bound for a long 
ride after a day’s work. Perhaps they lived far in the 
hills. A great ache of longing to do something for 
this poor family, sitting there in the darkness of 
spiritual ignorance as well as the darkness of the 
evening, went through Jessie’s heart. She had not 
even the Portuguese text of John 3 : 16 with her. 
She could do nothing but pass by in the dark, praying 
for the poor Portuguese who sat there. 

^^^The people which sat in* darkness saw great 
light,’ ” thought the girl ; dear Lord, let thy light 
come to these Portuguese.” 

Jessie had become acquainted with the new Portu- 
guese family from Honolulu, by getting tlie father to 
cut some wood. There were six children in the family. 
One of the little girls was named Gosissa.” They 


150 


JESSIE'S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


lived too far away to go to Sunday-school, but Jessie 
gave one of the children the text of John 3 : 16, and 
also fastened another copy of the text on the fence next 
to a place where a board had been removed to make an 
opening into the wood lot. The Portuguese father and 
mother were very friendly, and the man did his work 
honestly and promptly. The children needed wash- 
ing, but were bright, friendly little folks, and , the 
parents addressed Jessie as ^^sir’^ ; saying ^^How do, 
sir?^^ Good-bye, sir,’^ with cheerful ignorance of 
English distinctions in speech. 

One Sunday, as she was coming home from church, 
Jessie saw three little girls standing at a corner. One 
of the children looked steadfastly at Jessie as she drew 
near, and appealed to her : 

Give me a picture ? 

A picture ? questioned Jessie, a little surprised at 
the request. 

She looked at the other little girl. 

Why, Jetro ! exclaimed Jessie, recognizing her 
former scholar of one Sunday ; Is this you ? ’’ 

Jetro smiled in recognition. Jessie had not thought 
of seeing the child so far from the place where she 
had lived before. The family had evidently moved. 

CanT you come to Sunday-school, Jetro ? 

Idl ask my mother,^^ replied the willing Jetro, be- 
ginning to make haste to run in at the gate of the next 
house. 



* 




’ r 


J? ‘ . • 

^ ^ - - • 


- -s'! >'“'-r ■ ', ■ 

"’*** ' '* *U *“ ■ . ' ' ^ ^ 





n . " 


j. V . 

■'i *’ . ' r 


{ ' 





tif'i--'-- 


“ ' • * ■ 


4 


' . J V 

■ '-^Av 

I< . «? ». -i.- *■ • 


;v. «; % •!-- 

‘“>r 




r-^. .V.* \ ■ -- 



ST * ■ * 

-'l •'» T - * 







V 


.V > 


« . 




i T. 

' * 




•>. 


r^C- 




»• 

% 


*“ •» 


f T ^ 

. • > 


A r “fiA 

• •* ' f* “* - 

r 4 .> 

* *- - •* '✓* 

•» .*. r>^ t. t*.-* — ■ ■• 

'■ ■ !m,- 


I «* 


<. f 


• « ' 






‘ *> V 
1 • 

V 




• .9. 

* « 


% 


( 


■ j 


- • 

’ • t 


^ i 


X ; 

■5* 




«* " j- 


* . - > 

-♦ - . ^ 

i.i 


. V ■ 


« • ■“ 


•'A - 




J 

’<c. 

4 


X;-* - , . 

<- 




» i 


< 


^T. 


•' 




r 


4 .‘k 


•r 




' " 'V* - • . 


4 

- 






^- 3 ^- : V ' ^^ ■:■ 

• ^ _ _ ■‘•mL -X ^2 .- * • / 




K 51 ^ 


-A 

■ _*•--• * *• 


t* •< 


? 1 *-AV -• A’’ ' - ' &v 

“ r. ’ * 




# « 
c 


• ■» ■ 

vr ••'. ->.^^ 


-' -/a.' '• !?••..- 


*• 4 


• 4 . 


^ ‘V**r ■ - -. 

•.•••-* •-. y-'- ^ t'^ 


-• •<' *■ 
. - J 

c- 2 l A 


Jfv-***** •' ' •*• >'i r't*'" -' 

W 5 . A-r "• . •- . .\ ■ - ; y- '•'V'" > • 

-.1. 


.- - 1 ^ »■ ^ ♦ * -'_>*« * i/ / T"- 

.7 A? -1^ • ,>t ■ ■<* " » - -i ^ 

■*»,”■ .• . - ,-»L . ■ • 

» • .?■ - • . * - ' ». • 

. 4 - - V . . '-'■ ' >rr- 

^ . ■ . . -' t _ ‘ - ‘ - ‘ ■ 











'•■' * J •* ^ ^ ' ».• 

' ■ • ■ :''--kl S A 




Jessie’s Three Resolutions 


Page 150 



JESSIE PERSEYEKES. 


151 


No, not now ! quickly interposed Jessie, her 
morning Sunday-school being over ; next Sunday ; 
you see if you can come then/^ 

Jessie had no desire to have Mrs. Pereira called to 
the door. She would, no doubt, remember her hus- 
band^ s firm refusal. 

But the little girls evidently expected something from 
Jessie. 

^^Now this other child has been told by Jetro about 
that bird-picture with the text,’^ thought Jessie, has- 
tily looking through her Bible. ^^They think I go 
about with a supply of cards. What shall I do ? 

There seemed to be no pictures with her, save a few 
illustrations of heathen gods. She had brought and 
used the pictures to make more interesting the Sunday- 
school lesson. What good would it do to give Jetro 
or this other little girl a picture of Dagon, the fish- 
god? 

Suddenly, Jessie noticed her Sunday-school paper 
in her hymn-book. She pulled The Sunlight out, 
hurriedly. 

Can you read ? asked Jessie. 

My brother can, a little,’^ answered the friend of 
Jetro, and Jessie gave the children the paper. Its pic- 
tures would be intelligible, anyway. The children ran 
with it through a gate and toward the back door of a 
house, while Jessie went on toward home. 

don’t know what the Portuguese father will 


152 


Jessie's three resolutions. 


think when he sees your paper/' warned her mother, 
after Jessie had told of her meeting with Jetro. 

Perhaps he won't see it," said Jessie. Anyway, 
I could not help it. It was all I had to give." 

Jessie had a faint hope, from what Jetro had evi- 
dently told her little friend, that possibly the beauty 
of the bird-cards might have prevented their being de- 
stroyed. It might be possible that, hidden among Jetro's 
treasures, there yet remained one of those brightly colored 
cards with the words Create in me a clean heart, O 
God !" pen-printed on it. Would Jetro keep the card 
until she could read the words ; until she knew what 
they meant ; and until she made that prayer her own ? 
Only God knew. The power of the priests and the 
nuns was strong, but God could work, and who should 
hinder ? 

And he could bless these Chinese Testaments, queer- 
looking books though they w’ere, with strange charac- 
ters, distributed by Jessie in the shabby wash-houses 
where the walls had their red-paper signs ; v^here 
the queer, jerky language, the peculiar odor of the 
air, the sound of the water shot with force through the 
teeth of some Chinese engaged in sprinkling clothes 
after tliat fashion, the sight of olive faces and long 
queues, blue blouses or white attire, succeeded in im- 
pressing the passer-by with a sense of being among 
aliens even while he recognized the familiar proeess of 
ironing. At one such house Jessie had given a Testa- 


JESSIE PERSEVERES. 


153 


ment to the ironer next to the street-door. He stopped 
his work a minute, while all the other men in the room 
turned around or looked up. One Chinese, who had 
been smoking by the stove, arose and stepped forward. 

You read Chinese?’^ Jessie asked, and the ironer, 
who was turning the leaves of the Testament, re- 
sponded : 

All lite.^^ 

So Jessie went away, and a jargon of sounds arose 
as the wash-house inhabitants made remarks to one 
another. 

At another house, from which Jessie had sometimes 
in passing heard the mild tinkling of a kind of Chi- 
nese guitar, making a monotonous music in the 
hands of some hard-working laborer who was resting 
just inside the door, she found a man who could 
talk English quite well. 

^^You like the New Testament? You read Chi- 
nese?^’ questioned Jessie, presenting her gift. 

The man took the book and looked at it. 

All lite. Tank you,^’ he responded, politely. 

Here and there the word was left in the hands of 
these poor toilers. There were a number of wash- 
houses. Did it mean nothing that the New Testament 
in Chinese had entered their doors ? 

Jessie remembered that at Port Townsend, Wash- 
ington, the Chinese grew so anxious to have a mission- 
school, that at last they took the room in which they had 


154 


Jessie’s thkee resolutions. 


kept their heathen Joss/’ and fitted it up with electric 
lights, etc., for a school. If God could so move upon 
the Chinese of Port Townsend as to lead them to do so 
wonderful a thing as that, could not he bless his own 
word in these Chinese houses ? Jessie felt more en- 
couragement in regard to the Chinese than she did 
concerning the Portuguese. Yet both these peoples 
were in God’s hands, and all she could do was to prayer- 
fully seize every opportunity of working among either 
class. 

^^God, he know,” voluntarily said one Portuguese 
woman to Jessie, speaking of the hard work it had 
been to feed her six children since the family came from 
Honolulu to California, six months before. The 
speech may have implied some faith, or it may have 
been merely the Catholic readiness to speak of God. 
But Jessie, standing in the twilight exchanging a few 
words with the woman over the fence of the little yard, 
could not but hope that, in the midst of her ignorance, 
this woman had some seeking after God. 

If only the women among these two nations, the 
Portuguese and the Chinese, could be converted, what 
a difference there would be in the homes in the teach- 
ing of the children ! How little have the twenty-five 
hundred Chinese women of San Francisco been touched 
by the gospel ! What a field for Christian American 
women exists among their darker sisters in the Chinese 
homes of that city ! 


JESSIE PERSEVERES. 


155 


Returning home that night Jessie read from the 
American Missionary of January, 1893, the follow- 
ing letter : 

‘‘ During the past few months, in making medical 
visits to the Chinese families of San Francisco, I have 
been more than ever impressed with the need of more 
work being done for the Chinese women and girls. 

There are in this city about twenty-five hundred 
women, not including the girls, and very few of these 
ever see anything of the outside world. They spend 
most of their lives in one or two rooms, and in super- 
stition and ignorance. 

While much has been accomplished for the men, 
comparatively little has been done for the women. The 
girls, after about ten years of age, are very seldom 
allowed on the street. Certainly it is much harder 
work reaching the women than the men, and different 
means have to be used. I have found that in many of 
the houses an American visitor has never been seen, but 
would be made very welcome. I have no time to fol- 
low up my professional visits with adequate gospel 
work, although repeatedly urged to call again and to 
call often. These visits of mine are their only contact 
with the outside world. 

In another family, where I have been attending 
the baby, all the women living in the house gather to 
see me. They have lately been making it a practice, 
on various pretenses and excuses to send for me at nine 


156 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

o’clock at night, and only to eat suppers. All this is 
done just for company, and in order to have a friend. 

It is not that all these women are poor and in need 
of pecuniary assistance, but they are just like children, 
and need to be taught ; to be taught, not only how to 
read, but how to keep their homes clean and tidy, and 
many other matters pertaining to health and house- 
keeping. As a physician, I enter many homes, where 
an entrance would otherwise be denied. These women 
live in our midst, many of them with large families, 
and with a little tact on the part of a teacher, they could 
be brought under Christian influences. 

I would not intimate that nothing is being attempted 
for these women. Although some of the missions have 
a little work among them, the number engaged in that 
service cannot even make a fair beginning of what 
ought to be done. 

These homes, now so dark with superstition and 
ignorance would in due time show the effect of Chris- 
tian teaching. The children, most of them born iu 
this country, are now growing up in heathenism. 
They will make much better citizens if only their 
mothers can have the light of the gospel illuminating 
the darkness of their homes. There are not a few 
families, now where one or both of the parents were 
born in California, and yet they are living in just as 
much ignorance as if they had been brought up in 
China.” 


JESSIE PEESEVERES. 


157 


When Jessie had finished reading, she went to the 
window and silently watched the coming twilight. Her 
thoughts traveled back to her wish to carry the gospel 
to Ecuador. Then, almost before she realized it, she 
spoke aloud, saying : 

t Heathendom is here in my own country in all its 
blackness, and my sisters are living and dying without 
Christ ! My work is here at my hand. Dear Lord, 
help me — ^help us, the Christian women of this glorious 
land, to see the need, realize the necessity for more 
earnest work, and seize the opportunity to carry thy 
name to those who sit in darkness.^^ 


CHAPTER X. 


mXERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 

“I never could get interested in foreign missions.’' “Ever 
been at a missionary meeting?" “No." “Ever read a book 
on foreign missions ? " “No." “ Ever attend a lecture on the 

subject? “No." “ Ever hear a missionary sermon?" “No." 

“ Ever see a missionary ? " “No." “ Ever give any money for 

the support of missionary work ? " “ Why, no ! " . . . “ Who is 

responsible for your lack of knowledge on this subject?" No 
answer. “What excuse will you give at the last for not growing 
in grace and a knowledge of God?" No answer. — Selected. 

T KNOW wliat I am going to do/^ Jessie stated ; 

I am going to set a trap for Susie Barnes ! 

The music lessons of the day were over ; the house- 
work was done, and that question again presented itself 
to Jessie : What more can I do for foreign mis- 
sions ? 

Try to interest other people in the subject/^ her 
next idea was. 

I do try/^ answered Jessie, and her next thought 
was of Susie Barnes, one of the girls who belonged to 
the church, which she and her mother attended. 

Jessie had discovered that the only way in which 
she could make Susie attend any of the women’s mission 
meetings of the church was to give her beforehand an 
article to read aloud at the meeting. Jessie being on 

158 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


159 


the programme committee, could easily do this once in 
a while, and had congratulated herself that she was 
managing to have Susie hear a good deal of missionary 
information. 

Susie was a good reader. She had a clear voice and 
enjoyed reading to people. But she never came to a 
missionary meeting unless Jessie invited her by assign- 
ing to her some reading. Susie was not interested in 
missions. She declared she did not believe in foreign 
missions, and Jessie was disturbed to find that although 
Susie would read aloud, she did not seem to be any 
more interested in missions than before. Jessie re- 
solved on radical action. 

This time,’^ she said to herself, I am going 
to find something that will appeal straight to Susie’s 
conscience, and give the article to her to read 
aloud.” 

Jessie went to the missionary corner” of the book- 
case. She hunted a long time without finding just 
what she wanted. At last she found a mission article 
she liad once cut out and saved. It was called The 
Voices of the Women,” and was an account of a dream 
supposed to have been had one night by a woman who 
had told the collector of mission money that she was 
not interested in foreign missions, they were so far 
off.” During the woman’s dream, some of the women 
of different nations drew near and told of their pitiful 
condition as compared with that of this Christian 


160 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


American woman who was not interested in foreign 
missions.’^ 

I donH know but Susie will think it’s quite per- 
sonal/’ thought Jessie^ looking over the story ; but 
I’m going to have her read it.” 

Jessie’s eye fell on a certain paragraph in which a 
woman of Siam spoke : 

One of them pointed at me, and said, with intense 
scorn : ‘ Women of Siam, behold this woman ! She 
claims to love the Saviour who made her what she is ; 
she says she is grateful to him for her sheltered, petted 
life, but she has no interest in us. We are taught 
that our very existence is a curse for misdeeds in some 
former state. The happiest are sold to be one of many 
wives, the most \vretched are gambled away as slaves 
by our own mothers. We are brought up in profanity, 
in lying, in brawls, in filth. For us is no heaven, 
only a dreary hope of purchasing from our gods merit 
that shall secure for us a happier state in our next 
transmigration ; but she is not interested in us. De- 
graded, ignorant, despised at home, she too despises us, 
and calls herself a follower of the meek and lowly 
Nazarene. He cares for us, and commands his chil- 
dren to bring us good tidings ; but this child of his 
grudges a single half-hour to hear of our needs ; she 
even refuses us her prayers because she is not inter- 
ested in missions.’ ” 

That is hard on Susie, but I think she deserves 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


161 


commented Jessie, her eye wandering farther down 
the column. 

Various other nations were represented by women 
who told of their lives, and their ignorance of the way 
to heaven. One Chinese woman cried : 

O American woman, who hath made us to differ, 
and by what right are you not interested in us ? 

And then the child-widows of India came. 

Instantly my platform was surrounded by little 
girls, the oldest under six. Such drawn, pitiful, wan 
faces I hope never to see again. They lifted pleading 
hands and raised beseeching eyes to mine, as they 
begged : ^ O Christian lady, pray to your God for us. 
We are widows already, and this woe is ours for life. 
Look at the petted children of your land ; think of the 
curly heads you love and the laughing eyes in your 
homes. Look at our tired feet and bruised arms, and 
remember how tenderly you hold the tiny hands and 
guide the dainty feet of your darlings. We beg you, 
spare one thought, utter one little prayer for us, for we 
number eighty thousand under six years old.^ 

Eighty thousand pairs of eyes looked wistfully 
into mine for a minute, but suddenly a voice said : ^ It 
is useless ; her Saviour said, Suffer little children to 
come unto me,^^ but she is not interested.^ The faint 
hope died out in their faces, and they all vanished. 

Jessie gravely folded the story, and laid it one side. 
She would hand it to Susie, and see what came of it. 

L 


162 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

At the next foreign missionary meeting Jessie 
listened eagerly. Was she mistaken, or did Susie’s 
delightfully clear tones tremble a very little when she 
read what that voice from the woman of Africa said ? 

But this woman is not interested in us ; she cares 
not that to us is promised no heaven that is equal to 
what she now enjoys ; we are too far off. O God of 
Americ‘a, are we too far off for thee to care? Is 
there no help for us ? Is thy child a true representa- 
tive of thee ? ” 

The words were tender and thrilling. Jessie won- 
dered if any care for their meaning lay behind that 
voice. 

Before the circle meeting was over, the president dis- 
tributed some rather large cards that had been given 
her for the purpose by the district secretary of the 
Missionary Union. Each card read as follows : 
Will You Offer This Prayer Every Day ? ” 
May our Heavenly Father, who gave his only 
begotten Son to die for the sins of ^ the whole world,’ 
be pleased to lay heavily upon the hearts of all who 
profess to love Jesus Christ the responsibility of those 
millions and millions of ^ lost souls who have never 
so much as heard of a Saviour.’ May the Holy Spirit 
arouse all Christians who value their salvation to cry 
out, ^ AVhat shall I do ? Here am I, Lord ; use me 
to spread the knowledge of redemption through 
Christ.’ ” 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


163 


One of the women made a slight objection to taking 
one of the prayer cards. 

‘‘ Why, you can pray that, can^t you ? asked the 
president ; ‘ Here am I, Lord ; use me to spread the 

knowledge of redemption through Christ.^ That is 
what we are for, as Christians. 

Jessie expected that Susie would refuse a card ; but, 
instead, Susie took it without a word. 

I wonder if she will use it at all ? thought Jessie. 

“ Here is your story,^^ said Susie, after meeting was 
over, handing Jessie the article, ‘‘ Voices of the 
Women.^^ 

‘‘ I am much obliged to you for reading it to us,^^ 
replied Jessie ; but Susie made no answer. 

The two girls walked down the street together. 
Susie had her prayer card still in her hand. Before 
the two friends parted at a corner, Susie turned to her 
companion. 

I just want to know one thing,’^ she questioned, 
flushing. I suppose you will think it is a dreadful 
question for me to ask, but do you really believe that 
it makes any difference whether Christians pray for 
foreign missions or not ? Any difference to the mis- 
sions, I mean. Ho prayers for foreign missions do any 
good ? 

‘‘ Why, certainly ! exclaimed J essie. 

Hid you ever know or hear of any answers to such 
prayers ? persisted Susie. 


164 


JESSIE'S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


Jessie hesitated. 

Yes/^ she answered^ I know God answers 
prayer for missions. Don’t you remember about 
^ Prayer meeting Hill/ at Ongole, in India ? ” 

Susie shook her head. 

I don’t know anything about it/’ she replied. 

It was one New Year’s morning/’ said Jessie — 
1853, I believe it was — and there had been a great 
deal of discouragement about the mission to the 
Telugus. That New Year’s morning the missionaries, 
Dr. and Mrs. Jewett, and three native Christians went 
up on top of the hill, and as they looked down on the 
heathen temples, there seemed to come a special inclina- 
tion to ask God for a missionary to be sent to Ongole. 
The five Christians held a prayer meeting on the hill, 
and they felt a strong assurance that their prayers were 
heard. But twelve years went by before the answer 
came, and then that great missionary for Ongole, Mr. 
Clough, arrived. And of course you have heard the 
rest about the great number of conversions there, and 
how two thousand two hundred and twenty-two were 
baptized in one day. And now the number of converts 
among the Telugus is nearly fifty thousand. Yes, God 
does answer prayer,” reiterated Jessie, decisively. 

I believe I have heard something about it,” ven- 
tured Susie, doubtfully, and Jessie, used to constant 
missionary information at home, was dumb with aston- 
ishment. 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


165 


^^Is that the only prayer you remember that was 
answered ? questioned Susie, as she lingered a 
moment. 

Really, I can’t quite think,” confessed Jessie, ran- 
sacking her memory. I know that ever so many 
prayers for foreign missions have been answered. I 
will try to find out about them, and tell you.” 

Never mind,” apologized Susie. ^^Of course I 
know — I am sure that God really answers prayer, only 
I wondered if it really makes much difference whether 
Christians pray for missions or not.” 

And the girls parted. But Jessie went home, 
ashamed that she could not more definitely answer the 
question by giving instances of prayer. 

It is the first question that Susie has ever asked 
about foreign missions, I do believe,” thought Jessie. 

And she kept her prayer card. I wonder if the story 
I gave her to read had anything to do with it ? In 
the appeal from the Siamese woman, she said of the 
American one : ^ She even refuses us her prayers 
because she is not interested in missions.’ Perhaps that 
struck Susie.” 

Whatever it was that had moved the girl to ask 
her question. Aunt Abby was rejoiced to hear of it. 

I tell you, Jessie,” prophesied Aunt Abby, if Susie 
Barnes gets to praying about foreign missions something 
will come of it. I will help you to find answers to 
that question of hers.” 


166 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


Jessie and Aunt Abby made out the following list : 

Some Answers that God has Given to Prayers 
ABOUT Foreign Mission Work. 

1. At Tahiti, Prayer made in England. Years 
of fruitless and apparently hopeless toil had almost de- 
termined the directors of the London Missionary So- 
ciety to abandon altogether the work at Tahiti. Dr. 
Haweis, chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon^ one 
of the founders of the society and the father and lib- 
eral supporter of the South Sea Mission^ earnestly op- 
posed such abandonment of the field, and backed his 
argument by a further donation of a thousand dollars. 
The Rev. Matthew Wilks, the pastor of Mr. Williams, 
declared with great emphasis that he w^ould sell the 
clothes from his back rather than give up the mission, 
and proposed, instead of abandonment, that a season 
of special prayer should be observed for the divine 
blessing. Such a season was observed, letters of en- 
couragement were written to the missionaries, and — 
mark it ! — while the vessel was on her way to carry these 
letters to Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid-ocean, 
which conveyed to Great Britain, October, 1813, the news 
that idolatry was entirely overthrown in the island, and 
bore back to London the rejected idols of the people; 
and so was fulfilled literally the divine promise : ^ Before 
they call I will answer, and while they are yet speak- 
ing I will hear.’ ” 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


167 


2. In Term del Fuego, When Darwin first went 
to Terra del Fuego he found a type of humanity so 
degraded that he found it hard to say whether they be- 
longed above or below the line that separates man and 
beast. But Allen Gardiner made three attempts to 
reach these half-animal tribes. He died without seeing 
fruits, and his body was found by a rock, on which, in 
chalk, was written his dying testimony : ‘ Wait, oh, 
my soul, upon God, for my expectation is from him.^ 
Gardiner died, but his work went on ; and when again 
Darwin visited that southern cape, he found results of 
missions so amazing that he wrote a letter asking to 
become an annual subscriber to the good work.’^ 

3. In India, Prayer made in England. In the 
records of the Leicester Baptist Church, where Robert 
Hall succeeded Carey, it is noted under date of March 
24, 1793, that their minister had left them to go on a 
mission to the East Indies. ^ We have been praying,^ 
said one of the members, ^for the spread of Christ’s 
kingdom amongst the heathen, and now God requires 
us to make the first sacrifice to accomplish it.’ ” Dur- 
ing the eight years from 1784 to 1792, ^Ghe churches 
were praying ^ for the spread of the gospel to the most 
distant parts of the habitable globe.’ ” Carey sailed 
June 13, 1793. His work in India was an answer to 
those prayers of the Leicester Baptist Church. 

4. In Lebanon, Syria, A missionary. Rev. Gerald 
F. Dale, writes : A little more than two years ago a 


168 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


lad came to my house from one of the most bigoted 
villages in Lebanon and asked for a Bible. He had 
no money to pay for it, but offered a silver coin which he 
had found in ploughing upon the plain of Cale, Syria. 
I gave him a large reference Bible for the coin, and paid 
for it from a sum provided by a little boy in eastern 
Pennsylvania for the purchase of Bibles and Testa- 
ments. Some time after the [Syrian] lad called again, 
and told me that his relatives were endeavoring to take 
the Bible from him to destroy it. But he said, with 
a beaming face, that he had prepared a chest with lock 
and key for his Bible, and held up the key to show 
that his Bible was safe. I have since been to the 
United States for a much needed rest, and immediately 
after my return to my field of labor, was informed 
that two young men had been examined, and were to 
be received into full communion upon the following 
Lord’s Day. Imagine my joy to find that one of the 
young men was the lad who had given the old silver 
coin for the Bible. During those intervening months 
the sacred pages of that precious Bible had been read, 
and the prayers of that little boy in eastern Pennsyl- 
vania had been answered, and a soul had been born 
again.” 

5. In Africa, Prayer offered in Scotland. While 
Livingstone v^as in Africa, a Mrs. McRobert, of Scot- 
land, unable in person to share in his toils, sought 
prayerfully to help his labors to greater effectiveness. 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


169 


She had saved twelve pounds, and gave her consecrated 
ofTering to him that he might have a native African as 
a body servant. 

^^Livingstone used the gift to hire the faithful 
Mebalwe ; and when at Mabotsa a lion seized Living- 
stone by the shoulder, tore his flesh and crushed his 
bones, there seemed no hope for his life except God 
should work a miracle ; while that beast’s paw was on 
his head, Mebalwe, that native teacher, diverted the 
lion’s attention from his master to himself, and risked, 
as he nearly lost, his own life to save that of Living- 
stone. 

How little did that humble Scotch woman foresee 
that her twelve pounds would indirectly be blessed to 
the prolonging of that priceless life for the toils and 
triumphs of thirty more years. And who shall dare 
to say that Mrs. McRobert was not in God’s eyes a 
sharer in the wonderful work which he was spared to 
do in opening equatorial Africa ! ” 

6. In Africa, Prayers offered there. Rev. Henry 
Richards, Baptist missionary at Banza Manteke, 
Africa, says, speaking of the great revival among the 
natives of that place : Just before and during the 
revival we had some very remarkable answers to 
prayers. The head of the Nkimbi was about the 
greatest enemy to the gospel. He had almost absolute 
control over the men, and told them if they listened to 
me they would be bewitched, and I told him before his 


170 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

face and before these men, that he was deceiving them ; 
that he knew it was all untrue. He said, ^ Is it not 
true ? You come, and you will see if you do not die 
and rise again.’ He was trying to be bold and convert 
me to heathenism, but I objected, because I thought I 
might perhaps fall into their hands and die, but was 
not so sure as to the way I should rise again. His 
influence over these men was so great that I had diffi- 
culty in getting them to listen to the gospel. There 
was also another witch doctor, a female, who had about 
the same control over the women, and when I was 
preaching to the women she would say that if they 
listened to me they would die, and they would run 
away. There was one chief who, when I preached, 
would take his gun, and his people would follow him. 
I felt tliat those three were great hindrances to the 
gospel. While I was down the country with my wife^ 
I asked God, earnestly, to remove all hindrances out 
of the way. 

When I got back to Banza Manteke, I found the 
head of the Nkimbi had gone to a palm tree to get 
palm wine, and had fallen down and injured his back 
and died. The witch female doctor’s house had been 
removed, and she was dead and buried, and when I 
got to the town of this chief, I found that he had the 
fever and died, and so my three enemies were removed. 

During this time we were in great distress, our 
goods being delayed through some misunderstanding. 


IXTEKESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


171 


We were almost entirely without provisions and barter 
goods. We had children at the station whom we had 
ransomed and they had to be provided for. We had 
come to the very last. We had no more food^ no more 
cloth, and I called the children together and told them 
God w^ould answer prayer, and we must ask him to 
send us food and cloth to buy it with. Mr. Clark had 
gone to Lukunga to see how things were, and he found 
some cloth hidden away in a box underneath some 
other boxes. The day after we prayed, Mr. Clark 
came in and put twelve pieces of cloth on the table, 
and said, ^ If you want that you can have it.’ So our 
prayer was answered, and the people were greatly sur- 
prised. 

was also a very long time without soap. A 
rather common article to talk about, but if you are 
without soap for three months you will value soap as 
you have never done before. One has to be far more 
particular in that climate in regard to cleanliness. 
One must frequently change his linen. It does not 
matter so much in a clean climate like this (United 
States), but it is of great importance in the Congo. 
We had been without soap for nearly three months, and 
felt that we could not go without it any longer. I 
knew that they had no soap at Palabala or Lukunga, 
but I went to God and asked him for it. I said I did 
not know where it was to come from, but I would just 
wait. Two days after this, Mr. Ingham, who was 


172 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


then an official in the State, but who is now a good 
missionary, came in and said he wanted to get some 
things washed, and would I let my Jack-wash wash them 
as he was going down the country and he would get 
them when he returned. He put two bars of soap on 
the table, and said I could have what was left after he 
had cut off a piece for my Jack-wash to use, as he did 
not wish to be bothered with it. I told him how I 
had prayed for it, and felt that God would give it to 
us. 

During the time of the revival, we had two ser- 
vices a day and an evening service, and we had glorious 
meetings. The testimonies of the converts were given 
with great power. One day the boy who had charge 
of the lamps came in and said that the oil was finished. 
I just lifted up my heart to God in prayer, and said, 
^ You cannot mean that these services are to be stopped ; 
we cannot conduct them in the dark.’ An hour had 
not passed when the same boy came in and said that a 
carrier had come from Palabala. I went outside, and 
the first thing I saw was a large tin drum. I went 
and looked at it, and the first thing I read was, ^ Kol- 
zu oil,’ just the oil we needed. If it had been kero- 
sene, or parafine, or any other kind, we could not have 
used it. I said to Peter, ‘ Fill up the lamps ; God has 
sent the oil.’ ” 

7. Prayer offered at Hermannsburg, in Hanover. 

The experience of the Hermannsburg Mission is very 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


173 


encouraging^ and should help us to offer the prayer of 
faith. 

‘‘ Louis Harms projected his mission when he says, 

^ Of silver and gold I had none, but I knocked dili- 
gently on the dear God in prayer.^ In due time the 
ship ‘ Candace ^ is built and paid for, and is on its way 
with its precious freight of gospel messengers to be fol- 
lowed by others as the way is opened for them. 

The statistics of the mission, as given in the August 
^ Missionary Review,’ show that both income and expen- 
diture are irregular, but nicely adjusted to one another. 
In 1854, the expenditure was fourteen thousand four, 
hundred and fifty crowns and the income fifteen thou- 
sand crovms. In 1855, over against an outlay of 
nine thousand six hundred and forty-three crowns, is 
an income of nine thousand seven hundred and twenty- 
two crowns. In 1856, the expenditure is fourteen 
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight crowns and 
the income fourteen thousand nine hundred and seventy- 
eight crowns. In 1857, the outlay is thirty thousand 
nine hundred and ninety-three crowns, and the income 
thirty-one thousand one hundred and thirty-three 
crowns. In 1859, after meeting the year’s demands, 
some three thousand seven hundred crowns remain in 
the treasury. Such results were secured only through 
the prayer of faith and the power of God. Harms 
made no appeals, sought no man’s aid, did not adver- 
tise his needs. His reference to money matters in the 


174 


JESSIE S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


magazine he published went no farther than the barest 
outline of aceounts. He east his financial burden on 
the Lord^ and acted simply at his steward. 

8. Prayer offered by Bible Women and others of On~ 
goloy India, Thathapuddee Utchama and Gurende- 
palli Kotami gave beautiful instances of gracious 
answers to prayers. Utchama owns a small piece of 
land in which she sowed some castor-oil beans, and just as 
the crop was coming to perfection worms began 
to attack the plants. She called a few Christians 
together, and prayed earnestly that the Lond would 
remove those worms and give her a good harvest of oil 
beans. The Lord, she said, heard and answered their 
prayer, for there was not a worm to be seen after two 
or three days. The gram-munsiff of that village heard 
of this, and so came to Utchama, and said : ^ Utchama, 
I have heard of the way in which you got rid of the 
worms from your field. Won’t you collect the 
Christians together and pray for my fields too ? If 
your God answers your prayers, I promise that I will 
give him one-tenth of the produce.’ Utchama promised 
to do as the man requested, and morning and evening 
she collected some Christians together and prayed, both 
in the schoolhouse and in the man’s field ; the ryots 
(farmers) would always be present when they assembled 
for prayer in the field. For three days they prayed 
very earnestly, and at the end of that time the worms 
disappeared entirely. The ryots, in astonishment, ex- 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


175 


claimed : ^ This confirms the truth of your religion ; 
your God is the only true God.’ ” 

9. Prayer offered by a Burman at Rangoon, Burma, 
After Dr. Judson’s unsuccessful visit to the Burmese 
king, who would not look at the present of the fine gilt- 
covered copy of the Bible, and who read the first two 
sentences of a tract offered him, and then dashed it 
to the ground. Dr. Judson feared that he should be 
obliged to give up preaching Christ in Burma, for he 
thought no one would venture to hear him. On the 
Sunday after he reached Rangoon, when the three con- 
verts were with him secretly in the evening, he told 
them of all that had occurred at Ava, and how if they 
remained in Rangoon they would certainly be per- 
secuted. He told them he thought of removing to 
Chittagong, a place which is under the Bengal govern- 
ment. 

A few days after, Moung Bya came again to the 
mission house, accompanied by his brother-in-law, 
Moung Myat-yah. 

^ I have come,’ said Moung Bya, ^ to ask you not 
to leave Rangoon at present.’ 

^ I think,’ replied Dr. Judson, ^ that it is of no use 
for me to remain here. I cannot open the zayat ; no 
Burman will venture to examine the religion I teach, 
and so no one will believe it.’ 

^ Teacher,’ said Moung Bya, ^ my mind is dis- 
tressed ; I cannot eat or sleep, since you are going 


176 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


away. I have been among those who live near us, and 
I find even now some are secretly examining the new 
religion. My brother, Myat-yah, is one of them. Do 
stay with us a few months. Stay until there are eight 
or ten Christians here, and then, even if you leave the 
country, the religion will spread of itself — ^the king 
cannot stop it. Let us all make an effort. As for me, 
I will pray.’ 

Dr. Judson stayed. In a short time there were 
not only ten, but eighteen Burmese Christians in Ran- 
goon. Neither the king nor the viceroy interfered to 
persecute the missionaries or their converts ; and Dr. 
Judson was once more filled with thankfulness and 
hope.” 

Well,” remarked Jessie, as the list had been com- 
pleted and read aloud, I am pretty sure that Susie 
will believe that some prayers for foreign mission work 
have been answered. And these instances are so few 
compared to the number that might be found.” 

And how many prayers of which we know nothing 
God has heard and answered,” returned her mother. 

There is one thing more that I want to add fo that 
list before you give it to Susie,” interposed Aunt Abby. 
Then she wrote, very slowly, and read aloud : 

When Joseph Neesima, afterward the ^ Apostle of 
the Japanese,’ was a young man, he prayed this prayer : 

‘‘ ‘ O God, if thou hast eyes, look on me. O God, 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE, 


177 


if thou hast ears^ please hear me ; I want to be civi- 
lized/ 

God did look on Joseph Neesima, and lieard him, 
and Joseph Neesima not only became ^ civilized/ but 
Christianized, and a founder of a school where over 
seven hundred boys now study. Almost all the boys 
who graduate from this school become Christians before 
graduation. When Joseph Neesima lay dying, while 
his eyes were growing dim, he called for an atlas, and 
looking at the countries of the earth, he put his finger 
on one country after another, saying, ^ This is a Chris- 
tian country,^ or ^ This is a Pagan land.^ And then, 
as he died, this ^apostle of the Japanese^ breathed 
another prayer. He prayed that all lands might some 
day be led into the light of Christian civilization. That 
prayer has not yet been answered. Have you any part 
in its answer ? 

Jessie placed the list in an envelope, and a few days 
later gave it to Susie, who was quite surprised to re- 
ceive such a number of clippings as comprised the list. 

I didn’t mean to make you so much trouble by 
my question,” she apologized. 

It was no trouble,” answered Jessie ; I felt that 
I ought to have been able to tell you more than I did 
that day. It is a good thing to be asked a question 
once in a while. Aunt Abby found some of those 
answers.” 

But at home Aunt Abby had received a paper that 
M 


178 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


contained an extract from a leaflet called A plea for 
more prayer for our missionaries.^^ Aunt Abby read 
the extract aloud that evening, as the others were 
sewing : 

What right have we as churches, societies, or in- 
dividuals to assume the financial support of a mission- 
ary, if we do not also assume the support which comes 
from prayer ? Dare we turn them adrift in a foreign 
city with a mere pittance as a salary and then drop 
them? What right have we to deny them these 
expected prayers ? Far better let some one else have 
their support, who will not only provide their salary, 
but will hold up their hands with prayer ! 

Some of our missionaries are under the care of so- 
cieties whose churches have a membership of five, six, 
and eight hundred. Have you ever thought what 
might happen, if every day every member of that 
church sent up a petition to God for that faithful la- 
borer in the foreign field? Have you ever thought 
how doors would be opened, crooked places made 
straight, diseases healed, dangers averted, pestilence 
avoided, hard hearts softened, and souls converted to 
God ? Think of five hundred earnest prayers ascend- 
ing daily for one missionary ! What could she not do ? 
Who would not be a missionary with such a royal 
income ? 

How do we pray for our missionaries? Do we 
call them each by name ? 


INTEKESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


179 


That would be a different way from the usual one, 
wouldfft it?^^ commented Jessie’s mother from the 
lounge where she lay. I think that would call for 
more knowledge about our missionaries than many 
church-members possess.” 

• Jessie recalled an instance of a girl from California 
who had gone to Persia as a missionary, and who 
seemed to learn the language more easily than the 
other missionaries. One of the natives spoke about 
this, and the young missionary said that the reason 
why she learned the language so readily was that her 
mother, who was in California, was praying for her. 

And I believe that mother’s prayers may have had 
something to do with that girl’s success with the lan- 
guage,” added Aunt Abby, emphatically. 

How do we pray for our missionaries? Do we 
call them each by name ? ” 

The question followed Jessie persistently the rest 
of the evening and all the next day; and as she 
thought of it, many interesting facts pressed forward 
for recognition. 

Should we not, as Baptist Christians, know enough 
about our missionaries to do this in a much greater de- 
gree than we do ? If we believe in prayer, are we not 
bound to pray for the coming of the kingdom of our 
Lord in heathen lands ? And why should we not pray 
intelligently? When we pray for Assam, do we re- 
member to pray for our missionary, Mr. Clark, in the 


180 


Jessie’s theee resolutions. 


Molung hills, Avorking on his Naga-English dictionary, 
that may be such a help to those missionaries who 
come after him? When we pray for China, do we 
remember to pray for Mrs. Dr. Scott, as she tries to 
minister to the sick souls and bodies of the Chinese, 
who come to her blind, diseased, afflicted with curva- 
ture of the spine, — attending as she sometimes does to 
eighty or one hundred patients in one day ? Have we 
forgotten to pray that the Lord will give her skill and 
wisdom in the prescribing of the medicine and in the 
speaking of Christ to each poor soul ? Do we pray 
for our other medical missionaries in China, Dr. 
Barchet and Dr. Grant, at Ningpo? Do we pray 
especially for the hard toilers of West China, Mr. and 
Mrs. Warner and Mr. Upcraft? Do we pray for the 
lonely toilers in the far north of Japan, at Nemuro ? 
Do we know anything of the workers at Osaka? at 
Tokyo? at Yokohama? Have our missionaries in 
Africa, Mr. Richards and Mr. Clark, no claim on our 
prayers ? Has India no toilers who need our petitions ? 
Has Burma ? Let us call our missionaries ‘ by name ’ 
before our Lord in prayer. 

AVho knoAvs hoAV many blessings have been with- 
holden from mission fields because we have not prayed 
as we ought? Rev. John R. Hykes, of Kinkiang, 
China, in an article in the ^ Missionary Review,’ on the 
importance of winning China for Christ, says : ^ We 
are on the verge of a mighty outpouring of God’s Spirit 


INTERESTING SOME ONE ELSE. 


181 


upon the land of Sinim. Why does it not come? 
Because we have not prayed for China as we ought. 
The great need of China is not more men or more 
money ; but united, earnest, agonizing prayer for a 
copious outpouring of God’s Spirit. Oh, that Christian 
men and women would agonize in prayer for the salva- 
tion of this the greatest of all heathen nations.’ ” 

As Jessie thought on these things, she determined to 
more perfectly familiarize herself with the various 
fields and the workers therein than ever before, so she 
could be able to call each one by name, and pray for 
them individually. 


CHAPTER XI. 


ONE EESULT. 

O woman hearts that keep the days of old 
In living memory, can you stand back 

When Christ calls ? Shall the heavenly Master lack 
The serving love, which is your life’s fine gold? 

Do you forget the hand which placed the crown 
Of happy freedom on the woman’s head, 

And took her from the dying and the dead. 

Lifting the wounded soul long trodden down? 

Do you forget who bade the morning break, 

And snapped the fetters of the iron years ? 

The Saviour calls for service ; from your fears 
Kise girt with faith, and work for his dear sake. 

And he will touch the trembling lips with fire : 

O let us hasten, lest we come too late ! 

And all shall work; if some “must stand and wait,” 

Be theirs that wrestling prayer that will not tire. 

D id Susie Barnes care any more about foreign mis- 
sions than she had before she asked her question ? 
As Jessie waited on her mother and Aunt Abby, and 
taught her scholars and did the housework, the young 
music teacher wondered if Susie used her prayer-card ; 
if any real prayer for the foreign work had gone up 
from the girhs heart; or whether the words of the 
woman of Siam were yet true : She even refuses us 
her prayers because she is not interested in missions.’^ 
182 


ONE RESULT. 


183 


Great was Jessie’s amazement, therefore, to find 
Susie at the next meeting of the mission circle, al- 
though no ‘‘ trap ” had been laid to attract her, Jessie 
knowing that it would not do to have Susie on the 
programme every time to the exclusion of some other 
person. 

wonder if she is beginning to care?” Jessie 
vainly questioned herself, remembering Aunt Abby’s 
prophecy, ^^If Susie Barnes gets to praying about 
foreign missions something will come of it.” 

But there was nothing about Susie’s actions to show 
whether she was thinking much on the subject or not. 
After the meeting she disappeared immediately ; but 
Aunt Abby, who had been too feeble to attend, looked 
thankfully happy when she heard that Susie had been 
there. When Jessie was arranging some of Aunt 
Abby’s things the next day, the girl found, lying 
partly slipping out of her aunt’s Bible, a few lines 
Aunt Abby had cut from some paper. They read as 
follows : 


SUBSTITUTION.” 

“Now send in my place, O Master, 
Some one I dearly love, 

To the people who sit in darkness, 
With a message from above. 

I have learned my own unfitness 
For the task I vainly sought ; 

But others are willing and ready. 
And the work will yet be wrought. 


184 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


“ But since in the grand fulfillment 
I still would have a share, 

Choose one for the blessed service, 
Whom on my heart I bear; 

Her work and her aspiration, 

Her hope as my own shall be ; 

And around by the way of heaven 
I shall reach across the sea. 

“ When her hands are worn with labor. 
My knees shall be worn with prayer ; 
And to one who loves to listen, 

I will tell her every care. 

And when on the field she planted 
She sees no quickening sign, 

I will enter into my closet 
And plead for the power Divine. 

“ ‘ And if we labor together,’ 

Says one of the chosen band, 

* We shall reap and rejoice together.’ 

Oh, the joy of that other land I 
If I must be one of the number 
Whose strength is to sit still 
Dear Father, through my beloved, 
Teach me to do thy will.” 


To it was appended this note : 

Written by Miss Keyes, daughter of one of the 
missionaries to Syria, when illness in this country pre- 
vented her return to the beloved work in the foreign 
MdJ’ 

Dear old Aunt Abby ! Was that her prayer? 
Jessie’s eyes dimmed, reading it. 


1 



« 


k 


f 


ri 


% 


‘'•I 


I 



>• 



4 





\ ^ 

t 

I 






r1 




4 


4 

1 



1 


■» 

I 


• • 





« 



«» 

♦ 


I 


% 


> 




• * 




J 







( 


I 


'I 


V J 
* 


t 


> • 



I 









.1 


t 






Jessie’s Three Resolutions. 


Page 185. 




ONE KESULT. 


185 


Oh, if I could go, that is the way Aunt Abby 
would pray for me ! she thought. 

Month by month passed, and yet, whether invited to 
read to the ladies or not, Susie Barnes came regularly 
to the missionary meetings. Jessie grew to expect to 
see Susie there. 

I think she must be praying for missions or she 
would not come,^^ conjectured Jessie. 

And that prayer, which each person had been re- 
quested to offer every day was : 

May our Heavenly Father, who gave his only be- 
gotten Son to die for the sins of the whole world, be 
pleased to lay heavily upon the hearts of all who pro- 
fess to love Jesus Christ the responsibility of those 
millions and millions of lost souls who have never so 
much as heard of a Saviour.’^ 

Susie beginning to feel such a responsibility ? 
Had she learned to truly pray that prayer, Here am 
I, Lord ; use me to spread the knowledge of redemption 
through Christ 

Late one afternoon, nearly a year after the memor- 
able missionary meeting, Jessie came in from her music- 
teaching, and found Susie Barnes sitting talking to 
Aunt Abby. The old lady^s face shone with joy. 

I came in to say good-bye,’^ said Susie, smiling a 
little tremulously, as she turned to Jessie ; I am going 
away to study for a year at a training school, and then 
-r-then I hope I am going to be a foreign missionary.^^ 


186 


Jessie’s three resolutions. 


Susie’s voice trembled, but Aunt Abby’s joyful tones 
broke forth. 

Didn’t I tell you, Jessie, something would come 
of it if Susie began praying for foreign missions ? And 
she says our list of answered prayers helped her to pray 
for foreign missions ! ” 

Susie answered Jessie’s inquiring look. 

Yes, I have prayed for them, and that is what 
brought me to resolve to be a missionary. I have been 
praying for missions for months.” 

And so she was going ! She would begin study at 
the training school inside of two weeks. It seemed 
very sudden, especially in a girl who used never to be 
interested in missions. But she had been praying ! 
That was the explanation. Oh, that all those Chris- 
tians who are not interested ” in foreign missions 
could be induced to really pray for that portion of the 
Lord’s work ! What blessing might not come of such 
prayers ! What consecration of money might come ! 
What numbers of those Christians who now stay at 
home would feel irresistibly impelled to go into all 
the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 

But I don’t believe I should ever have begun to 
pray for foreign missions, if you had not invited me 
to read the article you gave me for that day at the 
mission circle,” confessed Susie, turning to Jessie. 

That brought me to the meeting, and being there, I 
received a prayer-card. And then you know the 


ONE EESULT. 


187 


article you gave me to read seemed to mean me ! I 
seemed to be the woman who was not interested enough 
in those heathen to pray for them/^ 

Then Jessie rejoiced that she had had any influence 
in bringing this bright young woman to consecrate 
herself to the work of leading the heathen to Christ. 

The weeks went swiftly by, and the time of parting 
came. 

I know you want to go as a missionary just as 
much as I do/^ whispered Susie, as she kissed Jessie 
good-bye. Don’t forget to pray for me.” 

God will open the way if he wants me to go,” 
whispered Jessie, with tearful eyes. I am so glad 
you are going.” 

And at home Aunt Abby and her sister, Jessie’s 
mother, prayed for the young missionary. Theirs was 
not the strength of body to go, but theirs was the 
strength of soul to pray. 

That evening, in the quiet of their own home, as 
each heart was filled with thoughts of Susie and her 
determination to devote her life to winning souls for 
the Master, Jessie, almost unconsciously, turned to the 
well-loved missionary corner ” for something to 
read. 

‘^Jessie,” said the sweet voice of her mother, 
won’t you read aloud, dear ? ” 

Certainly, mother mine.” 

Then Jessie read extracts here and there, forming to 


188 


JESSIE^S THREE RESOLUTIONS. 


her hearers a symposium on a subject very dear to 
each one. 

^ And if the Lord says to certain ones of his chil- 
dren, stay/^ does he not say to many who are not mi- 
ling to hear, go ? Have we honestly asked the 
Lord what his will is concerning us ? ^ 

Says Spurgeon : ^ I should not like you, if meant 
by the gifts of God for a great missionary, to die a 
millionaire. I should not like it, were you fitted to 
be a missionary, that you should drivel down into a 
king. What are all your kings, all your nobles, all 
your stars, all your diadems, and your tiaras, when 
you put them altogether, compared with the dignity of 
winning souls for Christ, with the special honor of 
building for Christ, not on another man^s foundation, 
but preaching Christas gospel in regions far be- 
yond ? ^ 

Mr. Paton says : ^ When, when will men’s eyes at 
home be opened ? When will the rich and the learned 
and the noble, and even the princes of the earth, 
renounce their shallow frivolities, and go to live 
among the poor, the ignorant, the outcast, and the 
lost, and write their eternal fame on the souls by them 
blessed and brought to the Saviour? Those who 
have tasted this highest joy, the joy of the Lord, will 
never again ask, Is life worth living ” ? ’ 

Says Mr. Spurgeon again : ^ The question is not 

whether the heathen can be saved without the gospel. 


ONE EESULT. 


189 


but whether we can be saved if we do not give it 
them/ 

Says Rev. A. J. Gordon : ^ Forget not that your 
first and principal business as a disciple of Christ is to 
give the gospel to those who have it not. He who is 
not a missionary Christian will be a missing Christian 
when the great day comes for bestowing the rewards 
of service.’ 

Dr. Grattan Guinness says : ^ Jesus has redeemed 
the world, and two-thirds of humanity do not know 
that they have been redeemed, because they have not 
been told. Let those words ring in our ears. Two 
hundred and fifty millions in India, two hundred and 
fifty millions in Africa, two hundred and fifty millions 
in China, redeemed and do not know it ! ’ 

And what says our Lord ? ^ Go ye into all the 

world, and preach the gospel.’ Does he mean you f 

Alas, that any heathen should have to accuse us 
in the words of a lad from the Upper Congo, who 
spoke in broken English at a missionary meeting in 
Exeter Hall, London. After contrasting his people 
who ^ want gospel ’ with Christians who have it, the 
poor lad asked : ^ Isn’t it a shame ? Shame to keep 

gospel to yourself? Not meant for English only ! 
Isn’t it a shame ? My people wanting gospel ! Isn’t 
it — isn’t it a shame ? ’ 

Let us take the testimony of two missionaries as 
to their work. One is Rev. Dr. Dean, the veteran, 


190 Jessie’s three resolutions. 

white-haired missionary, who is of the days of Jud- 
son, and who organized the first church in Hong 
Kong. The writer heard this aged missionary sug- 
gest to the young people of an audience to share in 
the honor of carrying the gospel to the heathen. Said 
the white-bearded missionary, so aged that he sat in 
his chair while addressing the audience : ^ I don’t call 
it’ (foreign missionary work) ^self-denial. It’s a 
privilege. If God should give me another half-cen- 
tury, I should like to round out a hundred years in 
the service of the heathen.’ Addressing the young 
people, he said, if at their age, ‘ I would regard it as a 
heavenly privilege, if I could start to-morrow morning 
and go to China.’ 

Compare with this the testimony of a much later 
missionary. Rev. S. A. Perrine, who, with his wife, 
in 1892, went to the Molung hills of Assam. He 
writes : ^ I cannot cease to thank God that he enabled 

me to follow his leadings around the circle of the 
earth. I was once on the point of refusing to be led. 
Had I carried out my original plans, my life would 
have been almost a failure.’ 

Are you willing to let God lead you in this matter 
of foreign missionary work ? ” 

Jessie’s voice ceased. The question was a very per- 
tinent one to her. She put aside the papers, and 
silently kissed both mother and aunt good-night. 

In the quiet of her own chamber she re-consecrated 


ONE RESULT. 


191 


her life, lier strength, her all to the service of her 
Master, who had done so much for her. 

iJIer life was wonderfully blessed, and although the 
door for her own service has always been closed, there 
are others who owe their first impressions of personal 
responsibility, terminating in some cases in entering 
the foreign field, to her efforts. 

To each one the question comes, as it came to Jessie : 

Are you willing to let God lead you in this matter 
of foreign missionary work ? 


THE END. 



r - . 


•i 4 

t 




>■ 


j 


K 


• r- ■ 


* 






I ' 


• ^ 



f 

0 


t* 




■V 


K» 


\ 


/ 




« 


I 

I. 


t 



> 


» I 


t 


z' 

t 

* 


/ 



0f 


* 4 


» 



H 


4 






« 



; 






* * * ' 
. jL^ 

• ^.^Sa 

«< 

( * *1 ( 

.t* 

■ i«i; 





■ . • 










' w. ^ ’ Iv ** *•* 

wr\.X, — V . - ^ 

■A \ • -" . 

• • . . ^ • ifc 


L‘- -> •*- ■* . ■ ..s^'J’ ^ . ¥ -,’W7rr''''fai-!^ 




r ^ 


.4 


‘^*“i 


K 






A < 


> # 


f .• 





« 


F-: ..■V’'* 




> \r 













T> 




♦••i ■» ■ 


^ •*'* 






j^: 


^ A 


<-? 




VC" 




•« '*. •» 




•v 








I « 


'« * « 


-* ' *v 


I .1 •■ • 






>•* 




V sk V^' 




• r 


-• > i 


1 • » ^ 


r Ik: 








• i 




Mfe. V";W 




r W» 




»_■*:’ 


1^^ 


v*. -^1 






y- 


"t- 


%'W •» I * 






\ : ‘ .,1- 

.it *. "■ -V — 


- 


A A 


V . 


* .4^ 






►_ Y.- 






l-a 


“r^. 






iV^^' 




fV*: 








• 








»:f-- 


-!.-r-»f., 


v» 




y*' 












■- 


.- > 


'CS 


.1 


> '1 




- v< ^' > 


>» 


s ■ •^' 


;i^- 


•^1 • . » 


Vr 










» --rj 






‘•-V 


r y* ->i 


t « 


♦>. • 


^ p 


.V 




tT. »»y 


r •> 




rfl V 


,'"X- V 


7 


'^1 




• f > 


''//'-Hi-'-, 

t;;^- ^ 

■H9> ^ I 7^; 








»^p 


*- .trfj 






/ .*1^* 


rS. 


>*C. 






t ^ % 


i:'^^ 




vr4^ 




* ^ ^ 1 

•Ti:* 










IKA, 


.:\ 


.1? ^• 


'-• - . vJi**. 


^2 


\..c 


%•*./ 


♦. • , - 










i- 








5^ ^ 




'•k: 






#»<’ 









» • f 




V 


I • 



I 


I 

> 


t 




.«■ 





/ . 




•i 


, » 




- * 


I 






4 * • ^ 




1 


.* 


r 


4 


« 









% 




% 


^ • 


» 


# 






\ 







# 

4 


% 


r « 


• 




t 

. ^ 







* 


• * 

% 

i 




A 


A- 

4 


I 







« 

i ' 

I 


» ■ 


f 




/ 


•« 


♦ » 


f 


t 


- M 


* 

t 


^ ♦ 


I 


» 


« 


I 


> 


t 


j 



^ • 

1 


% 


I 







V- » 




✓ 


\ 




•% * 


% 


4 


« 




I 




I • 


^ . 


) . 











V 


?» 


4 


» 







I 





k 


V \ 




< 


t 


. \ 


4 


j • 


% 

V 




4 




